* LI BRARY OF CONGRES S. \ 



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J UNITED STATED 



MANN A- CRUMBS 



HUNGRY SOULS. 



CONSISTING OF 

EXCERPTS FROM THE LETTERS 

OF, THE 

Rev. SAMUEi/rUTHERFORD, 

GATHERED BY THE 

Rev. W. P. BREED, D.D. 



/ 
PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

No. 821 Chestnut Street. 



[the libra ry 

| F cpNGRESSl 
WASHINGTON 



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Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED BY WESTCOTT & THOMSON*. 



PREFACE. 



"he giveth goodly words." — gen. xlix. 21. 

The godly utterances of saintly men are the grace of 
God translated from human experience into human lan- 
guage. The Holy Grhost dwells in regenerated souls, to 
mould them into Christ' s image and lead them into the deeper 
mysteries of divine truth, and some of these souls he bears 
upon his wings very far up the sides of Zion, and from its 
sunny peaks shows them many bright things, of which it 
is for the joy and edification of those who linger on the 
lower slopes to hear them speak. 

The sacred writers speak to us from the mount of In- 
spiration, and simply pass into our possession the truths 
which Glod imparts to them. Or if any ingredients of 
their own experience are commingled in their writings 
with these divinely imparted truths, we are always at a loss 
as to the dividing line between the divine and the human. 
We never can tell just how much their experimental piety 
owes to their peculiar relation to Gk>d as inspired men. In- 
spiration is not necessarily indeed associated with a gracious 
state. Balaam was, no doubt, the subject of inspiration: 
But actual good in the heart can hardly fail to catch new 
hues, and be kindled into fuller glow, by the presence in 
the mind of divinely imparted truth, or by that peculiar 



controlling influence which always accompanies its expres- 
sion. Even in such writings as the fifty-first psalm, that 
matchless song of the contrite soul, we cannot with cer- 
tainty distinguish between the emotional currents caused 
by the presence and agency of the Spirit as inspirer, and 
his influences simply as sanctifier. 

Hence the experience of those highly favoured of the 
Holy Ghost, yet uninspired, comes more fully and certainly 
within the range of piety as possible to all men of all ages, 
and puts its subjects more undeniably upon the common 
level of the regenerated. And for this reason such expe- 
rience must have a peculiar attraction for all stragglers 
up the steeps of sanctification. And the eminences to 
which these godly ones have been enabled to climb, instead 
of discouraging us feebler ones, ought to fill us with joy 
and hope. 

When the child of genius gazes upon some miracle 
of art, a statue, or painting, or follows the flight of a 
master-poet as he soars and shakes the glories of poesy 
from his wings, it gladdens his heart to see how much is 
possible to man, and inspirits him to the higher aims of 
a lofty ambition. So we, as we lift our half-fledged wings 
to struggle along in our humble, intermittent flights, ought 
to find fresh encouragement in the attainments of others, 
who we know were by nature just the same weak, imper- 
fect, sin-laden creatures as ourselves. For if the indwell- 
ing Spirit taught them to fly so high, who shall limit his 
gracious power and say that he cannot do for even our poor 
selves what he has done for others ? If he can fit eagle- 
wings to one block of stone, why not to another? What- 



ever our expectations may be, it is something that our 
desires are strong, and that any degree of advance is at 
least possible. 

Among those who, since apostolic times, have towered 
high in devotional nights, or gone deep into the mines of 
spiritual wealth, the Rev. Samuel Rutherford of Scotland 
will always be named with affectionate reverence by those 
familiar with his writings. 

Born in the year 1600, and sinking to sleep in 1661, his 
life was passed amidst political and ecclesiastical agitations 
well calculated to develope a masculine piety, and polish it 
to a lustre of more than ordinary glow. 

This memorable parenthesis of British history, saw James 
the First put on the English crown, and transfer it to 
Charles the First. It saw this Charles sink under the 
wrath of an indignant nation into a grave of blood. It em- 
bosomed the memorable period of the Commonwealth under 
Cromwell. And a year before the death of Rutherford, it 
saw the triumphant march of Charles the Second from 
Dover to London, and the inauguration of those Bacchanalian 
revelries in which all virtue and decency were well nigh 
drowned. 

This period was marked by unusual violence, in that 
long war which the heroic, bleeding church of Scotland 
had to wage against the profane, persistent, and merci- 
less encroachments of the civil power. Into this war 
Rutherford threw himself with all the energy of a high 
and heroic nature, and more than once found himself in the 
relentless clutches of persecution. 

In 1636 he was torn from his flock at Anwoth and ban- 
1* 



6 PREFACE. 

ished to Aberdeen, a large deputation of his people accom- 
panying him to his place of confinement. At this place he 
wrote about two hundred and twenty of those Letters, so 
replete with the life of an exalted godliness. Many of 
these he dates from " Christ's palace in Aberdeen," and in 
one of them he writes of the better land as — "A land 
that has more than four summers in the year ! What a 
singing life is there ! There is not a dumb bird in all that 
large field, but all sing and breathe out heaven, joy, glory, 
dominion to the High Prince of that new found land ! 
And verily the land is sweeter that He is the glory of that 
land!" 

In 1638 another blow from the hand of the tyrant on the 
throne roused the whole nation. The Covenant was revised, 
and, amidst fasting and prayer and tears, signed by the 
flower of the nation, and in some instances with blood 
drawn from the arms of the signers ! Rutherford now 
hastened back to Anwoth. In 1643 he went to London as 
Commissioner to the great Westminster Assembly of 
Divines, and had an important share in framing its memor- 
able Confession and Catechisms. 

But freedom ebbed again, and Rutherford, for his noble 
work " Lex Rex," "Law is King," was deposed from all 
his offices and summoned to answer before Parliament the 
charge of High Treason. But sickness had laid its hand 
upon him, which, with his many trials, domestic and other, 
ripened him for a better world. To the summons of his 
persecutors, which reached him upon his death-bed, he 
answered — " I have got another summons before a Supreme 
Judge and Judicatory, and I behoove to answer my first 



summons, and ere your day arrive I will be where few 
kings and great folks come. ' ' 

His Letters, making a volume numbering some three 
hundred and fifty, have been published again and again, 
and are highly prized by the devout. We are told that 
Baxter said of them, "Hold off the Bible — such a book the 
world never saw !" Richard Cecil wrote, " He is one of 
my classics. ' ' The size of the book, however, as well as 
some peculiarities of expression, have greatly limited its 
circulation. For years, in reading these letters, we have 
been in the habit of marking passages remarkable for their 
pith or spiritual brilliancy, and at length determined to 
copy them for publication in a little volume by themselves 
under appropriate headings. We trust the work will not 
be unacceptable to Christians into whose hands it may come. 

It was at first our intention to attempt some classifica- 
tion of these gracious utterances, but aside from the 
difficulty of the task, it occurred to us as better to let 
them run in a chronological order. For in this suc- 
cession we discover the ebbs and flows of his devotional 
feeling, and are often struck with the abruptness and mag- 
nitude of spiritual vicissitude in his heart. To-day we find 
him in the Slough of Despond, and to-morrow on the Delect- 
able Mountains ; here struggling up the Hill Difficulty, 
and there reposing in the palace Beautiful ; at one time 
filled with exultation, at another groaning under deadness of 
heart or filled with discomfort by the revival of "old 
challenges," the startling echoes of past transgressions and 
shortcomings, in all which the spiritually-minded reader 
will see the lineaments of his own countenance. 



8 PREFACE. 

Of these extracts may we not say as the Rev. A. A. 
Bonar says of the Letters themselves, in the preface of an 
edition of them, republished in this country by the Messrs. 
Robert Carter and Brothers, New York, that they cannot 
fail to be precious to "all who are sensible of their own 
and the cburch's decay and corruptions— all who delight 
in the Surety's imputed righteousness— all who rejoice in 
the gospel of free grace, all who seek to grow in holiness, 
all afflicted persons— all who love the person of Christ— 
and all who love that blessed hope and glorious appearing 
of the great God our Saviour." 

We can only add that if the perusal of these excerpts 
shall convey to any considerable number of God's people 
even a portion of the instruction and delight experienced 
by the compiler in preparing them, this little volume will 
prove no mere cumberer of the book-shelves. 

Philadelphia, 1864. W. P. B. 



MANNA-CRUMBS 



The Pastor's Tiove of his People. 

I would lay ray dearest joys in the gap between 
you and eternal destruction. 

My witness is in heaven, your heaven would be 
two heavens to me, and your salvation two salva- 
tions. 

My day thoughts and my night thoughts are of 
you. 

Spiritual Darkness. 

The wound of a wounded conscience is a most 
inexpressible terror ; none can describe it but he 
who has tried and tasted the same. It impaireth 
the health, drieth up the blood, wasteth away the 
marrow, pineth away the flesh, consumeth away 
the bones, maketh pleasure painful, and shorteneth 
life. No wisdom can counsel it, no counsel can 
advise it, no advice can persuade it, no assuage- 
ment can cure it, no eloquence can move it, no 
power can overcome it, no spectre affray it, no 
enchanter charm it. 



10 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Christ Steadfast. 

Your heart is not the compass that Christ sail- 
eth by. 

Faith. 

Faith may dance because Christ singeth. Faith 
apprehendeth pardon, but never payeth a penny 
for it. 

Sickness a Bless in y. 

I hear Christ has been so kind as to visit you 
with sickness, and to bring you to the door of the 
grave : but ye found the door shut, blessed be his 
glorious name, till ye be riper for eternity. 

Holy Confidence. 

I never knew before what his love was in such a 
measure. If he leave me, he leaveth me in pain 
and sick of love ; and yet my sickness is my life 
and health. I have a fire within me and I defy 
all the devils in hell to cast water on it ! 

Holy Longings. 

The Lord knoweth that, if I could, I would sell 
myself without reversion to Christ. sweet Lord 
Jesus, make a market and overbid all my buyers ! 
I dare swear that there is a mystery in Christ 
which I never saw— a mystery of love ! Oh, if he 
would lay by the lap of the covering that is over 
it, and let my greedily longing soul see it, I would 
break the door and be in upon him to get my fill 
of love; for I am an hungered and famished 
soul. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 11 

The 3I\nifttvij. 

Pray for me that the Lord would give me house- 
room again to hold a candle to this dark world. 

Christ a Physician. 

A soul bleeding to death, till Christ were sent 
for, and cried for in all haste, to come and stem 
the blood and close up the hole in the wound, were 
a very good disease when many are dying of a 
whole heart. 

Contest with, Sin. 

Alas ! how often play I fast and loose with 
Christ ! He bindeth, I loose ; he buildeth, I cast 
down ; he trimmeth up a salvation for me, and I 
mar it. I fall out with Christ, and he agreeth 
with me again twenty times a day. I forfeit my 
kingdom and heritage ; I lose what I had, but 
Christ is at my back, and following on to stoop and 
take up what falleth from me. Were I in heaven, 
and had the crown on my head, if Free-Will were 
my tutor, I should lose heaven. Seeing I lose my- 
self, what wonder I should let go and lose Jesus 
my Lord. 

Our IAglit Affliction. 

Men do lop the branches off their trees round 
about, to the end that they may grow up high and 
tall. The Lord hath in this way lopped your 
branch, in taking from you many children, to the 
end ye should grow upward, like one of the Lord's 
cedars, setting your heart above, where Christ is at 
the right hand of the Father, 2 Cor. iv. 17, 



12 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Dig Deeper. 

I dare avouch the saints know not the length and 
largeness of the sweet earnest and of the sweet 
green sheaves before the harvest, that might be 
had on this side of the water, if we would take more 
pains. 

Inbred Sin. 

I am every way in your case, as hard hearted 
and dead as any man, but yet speak to Christ 
through my sleep. Sol. Song, v. 2. 

Christ our Helper. 

I do persuade myself that ye know that the 
weightiest end of the cross of Christ which is laid 
upon you, lieth upon your strong Saviour. Cour- 
age ! Up your heart ! When ye do tire, he will 
bear both you and your burden ! 

Clirist Enough. 

They lose nothing who gain Christ. 

God's Might to His Own. 

Ye can no more justly quarrel with your great 
Superior for taking his own at his just term-day, 
than a poor farmer can complain that his master 
taketh a portion of his own land to himself when 
the lease is expired. Indeed, that long loan of 
such a good daughter, an heir of grace, a member 
of Christ, deserveth more thanks at your creditor's 
hands than that ye should gloom and murmur when 
he craveth but his own. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 13 

CemetHem (Uoom. 

Ye are like Jacob mourning at the supposed 
death of Joseph, when Joseph was living. The 
new creature, the image of the second Adam, is 
living in you, and yet ye are mourning at the sup- 
posed death of the life of Christ in you. 

Christ Jesus, whom your soul through forests 
and mountains is seeking, is within you. 

Christ Unchanging. 

There be many Christians most like unto young 
sailors, who think the shore and the whole land do 
move, when the ship and they themselves are 
moved ; just so not a few do imagine that God 
moveth, and saileth and changeth places because 
their giddy souls are under sail, and subject to al- 
teration, to ebbing and flowing — but the foundation 
of the Lord abideth sure. 

JLove of Christ. 

I doubt not that if hell were betwixt you and 
Christ as a river, which ye behooved to cross ere 
ye could come at him, but ye would willingly put 
in your foot and make through to be at him upon 
hope that he would come in himself into the deep- 
est of the river and lend you his hand. 

Above the World. 

My Lord hath brought me to this, that I would 
not give a drink of cold, water for this world's 
kindness. 

2 



14 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Consolation. 

Ye have one with you in the furnace whose vifc- 
age is like unto the Son of God. If your health 
did not require so much of him, he would not spend 
so much physic upon you. All the brethren and 
sisters of Christ must be conformed to his image 
and copy in suffering, and some do more vively re- 
semble the copy than others. 

Behold your forerunner, going out of the world 
all in a lake of blood, and it is not ill to die as he 
did. 

Be Patient. 

Do not -weary, neither think that death walketh 
toward you with a slow pace. Ye must be riper 
ere ye be shaken ; your days are no longer than 
Job's that were swifter than a post — as the eagle 
that hasteth for the prey. There is less sand in 
your glass now than there was yesterday. 

Persuade yourself that the King is coming. 
Read his letter sent before him — " Behold, I come 
quickly." Wait with the weary night-watch for the 
breaking of the eastern sky, and think that ye 
have not a morrow. Show yourself a Christian by 
suffering without murmuring, for which sin four- 
teen thousand and seven hundred were slain. Num. 
xvi. 49. 

Tlie Legacy. 

Hold you here. Here is your Father's testament. 
Read it. In it he hath left you remission of sins 
and life everlasting. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 15 

JLooh Above. 

Build your nest upon no tree here ; for ye see 
God has sold the forest to Death, and every tree 
wherever ye would rest, is ready to be cut down to 
the end that ye might flee and mount up and build 
upon the rock. 

IjOoJc Al i cad. 

I bless my God that there is a death and heaven. 

Sorroiv Keeps from Sin. 

The hedge of thorns and the wall which God 
buildeth in your way to hinder you from this brier, 
(the world) is the thorny hedge of daily grief, loss 
of children, weakness of body, brevity of the time, 
uncertainty of estate, lack of worldly comfort, and 
fear of God's anger for old unrepented of sins. 
What lose ye, if God twist and plait the hedge 
daily thicker ! 

Watch. 

Ye know not how soon your marriage day will 
come. Nay, is not eternity hard upon you ? It 
were time then that ye had your wedding garments 
in readiness. Be not sleeping at your Lord's 
coming. I pray God that ye may be upon your 
feet standing when he knocketh. «• 

Pray for Zion. 

Pray for poor friendless Zion ! Alas ! no man 
will speak for her now, although in her own coun- 
try she hath good friends, her husband Christ, and 
his Father, her father-in-law. 



16 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Pest in Christ. 

Jesus, Jesus be your shadow and your covering. 
It is a sweet soul-sleep to lie in the arms of Christ. 

The Pastor's Sorrows. 

I have received many and divers dashes and 
heavy strokes since the Lord called me to the min- 
istry, hut indeed I esteem your departure from 
among us the weightiest. But I perceive that God 
will have us to be deprived of whatsoever we idol- 
ize, that he may have his own room. I see exceed- 
ingly small fruit of my ministry, and would be 
glad to know of one soul to be my crown and re- 
joicing in the day of Christ. 

Pray for TTs. 

If ever you would pleasure me, entreat the Lord 
for me now when I am so comfortless, and so full 
of heaviness that I am not able to stand under the 
burden any longer. 

Communion. 

sweet communion ! when Christ and we are 
through one another, and are no longer two ! 

Pray for Zion. 

Zion is the ship wherein ye are carried to Canaan. 
If she suffer wreck, ye will be casten overboard 
upon death and life to swim to land upon broken 
boards. It were time for us by prayer to put upon 
our master pilot Jesus, and to cry — " Master, save 
us, we perish !" 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 17 

Like Christ . 

Ye cannot, ye must not have a more pleasant 
condition here than he had who through afflictions 
was made perfect. 

Hetter as it Is. 

When ye are come to the other side of the water 
and have se,t down your foot on the shore of glo- 
rious eternity and look back again to the waters, 
and your wearisome journey, and shall see in 
that' clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the 
bottom of God's wisdom, ye shall then be found to 
say — " If God had done otherwise with me than he 
hath done, I had never come to the enjoying of this 
crown of glory." 

Christ All. 

Welcome, welcome Jesus, whatsoever way thou 
comest, if we can get a sight of thee. And sure 
I am that it is better to be sick, providing Christ 
come to the bedside and draw the curtains and say 
— " Courage ! I am thy salvation !" than to enjoy 
health and never to be visited of God. 

G-oocl Company. 

Ye are now alone, but ye may have for the seek- 
ing, three always in your company, the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

Spiritual Decline. 

The glory of the Lord is departing from Israel, 
and the Lord is looking back over his shoulder to 
see if any will say — " Lord, tarry !" 



18 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

The Lord's Supper. 

You have been of late in the king's wine-cellar, 
where you were welcomed by the Lord of the inn, 
upon condition that you would walk in love. 

Submission. 

I find not in the whole book of God a greater 
note of the child of God than to fall down and 
kiss the feet of an angry God. 

Like C twist. 

Since our Lord and Redeemer, with patience, re- 
ceives many a black-stroke on his glorious body, 
and many a buffet of the unbelieving world, follow 
him and think it not hard that you receive a blow 
with your Lord. Take part with Jesus of his suf- 
ferings and glory in the marks of Christ. 

Foes Feeble. 

When the sea is full, it will ebb again, and as 
soon as the wicked are come to the top of their 
pride and are waxed high and mighty, then is their 
change approaching. 

Communion Day. 

One of our feast days, wherein our well beloved 
Jesus rejoiceth, and is merry with his friends. 

■Testis. 

A running-over fountain, at which I and others 
may come with thirsty souls and fill our vessels. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 19 

Nothing New. 

You are in the beaten and common way to 
heaven when you are under our Lord's crosses. Ye 
have reason to rejoice in it more than in a crown 
of gold, and to rejoice and be glad to bear the 
reproaches of Christ. ' 

Zion Safe. 

I am sorry for our desolate kirk. Yet I dare 
not but trust that so long as there be any of God's 
lost money here he will not blow out the candle. 

Patience. 

Be patient for the Lord's sake, under the wrongs 
you suffer of the wicked. It proveth you to be 
the Lord's wheat. Christ went to heaven with 
many a wrong. 

To the Roch. 

Dearly beloved, be not casten down, but let us, 
as the Lord's doves, take us to our wings, for other 
armour we have none, and flee into the hole of the 
Rock! 

Weaning. 

It is God's mercy that he giveth you your fill 
even to loathing of this bitter worlcf, that ye may 
willingly leave it, and like a full and satisfied ban- 
queter, long for the drawing of the table. 

Ask Much. 

The more greedy ye are in suiting, the more 
willing he is to give, delighting to be called open- 
handed. 



20 MANNA-CRUMBS, 

tfesus tvith You. 

Be content to wade through the waters betwixt 
you and glory, with him, holding his right hand 
fast, for he knoweth all the fords. Be not afraid, 
therefore, even when ye come to the black and 
swelling river of Death, to put in your foot and 
wade after him. The current, however strong, 
cannot carry you down the water to hell. ' 

* Heaven. 

Four-and-twenty hours in that place is worth 
threescore and ten years sorrow on earth. 

iTemis the Same. 

Jesus, who upon earth ate and drank with pub- 
licans and sinners, and spake and conferred with 
harlots, and put out his holy hand and touched the 
leper's filthy skin, and came evermore nigh .sin- 
ners, even now in glory is yet that same Lord. 
Take him for the old Christ, and claim still kind- 
ness of him, and say, " Oh ! it is so ! He is not 
changed, but I am changed." 

All for the Taking. 

This is an easy market ; ye but look on with 
faith; for Christ suffered all and paid all. 

The Deep Things of Godliness. 

Come near to the Godhead and look down to the 
bottom of the well. There is much in him, and 
sweet were that death to drown in such a well. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 21 

Look Upward. 

Have still your face up the mountain. 



God's wheat must go through Satan's sieve, but 
their faith shall not fail. 

CJirist-ICisses. 

Your faith kisseth Christ and he kisseth the soul. 

Sanctified Sorrow. 

The thorn is one of the most cursed and angry 
and crabbed weeds that the earth yieldeth, and yet 
out of it springeth the rose, one of the most 
sweetly smelled flowers and most delightful to the 
eye that the earth hath. 

A. Mark of Faith. 

Among many marks that we are on this journey 
and under sail toward heaven, this is one, when the 
love of (xod so filleth our hearts that we forget to 
love and care too much for the having or wanting 
of other things : as one extreme heat burneth out 
another. 

.Be Heady. 

Think that your one foot is here and your other 
foot in the life to come, and to leave off' loving, de- 
siring or grieving for the wants that shall be made 
up when your Lord and ye shall meet, and when 
ye shall give in your bill that day of all your wants 
here. 



22 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Clirist's Workmanship. 

Let our Lord's sweet hand square us, and ham- 
mer us, and strike off the knots of pride, self-love, 
and world-worship, and infidelity, that he may make 
us stones and pillars in his Father's house. 

True Soppiness. 

It is not long days but good days that make the 
life glorious and happy. 

Zoving Constancy. 

It is the crooked love of some, that they love 
bracelets, ear-rings, and rings, better than the lover 
that sendeth them. But God will not be so loved. 
For that were to behave not as the chaste spouse to 
abate our love when these things are pulled away. 

Poor Pay. 

We have cause to pity those poor creatures that 
stand out against Christ and the building of his 
house. Silly men, they have but a despicable and 
silly heaven, nothing but meat and clothes, and 
they laugh a day or two in the world, and then in 
a moment go down to the grave. 

Hope. 

Ye will get no more than this, until ye come up 
to the well-head ; where ye shall put up your hand 
and take down the apples of the Tree of Life, and 
eat under the shadow of that Tree. These apples 
are sweeter up beside the Tree, than they are down 
here in this piece of a clay prison-house. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 23 

Be I'aticnt. 

Bide his harvest. Wait upon his Whit-Sunday. 
His day is better than your day. He putteth not 
the hook into the corn until it be ripe and full- 
eared. 

Bet Go. 

As to what are your fears anent the life and 
health of your dear children, lay it upon Christ's 
shoulders. Let him bear all. Loose your grips 
of them all; and when your dear Lord pulleth, 
let them go with faith and joy. It is a tried faith, 
to kiss a Lord that is taking from you. 

Heaven Nearer. 

Our dear Lord is gracious to us, who shorteneth 
this life, and hath made the way to glory shorter 
than it was, so that the crown that Noah did fight 
for five hundred years, children may now obtain in 
fifteen years. 

Kot Yet. 

Your life hath been near the grave, and ye were 
at the door, and ye found the door shut fast ; your 
dear Christ thinking it not time to open these gates 
to you till ye have fought some longer in his camp. 

Benediction. 

Now I take my leave of you, praying my Christ 
and your Christ to fulfil our joy, and more graces 
and blessings from our sweet Lord Jesus to your 
soul, your husband's, and children's, than ever I 
wrote of letters A, B, C, to you. 



24 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 



Look for crosses ; and while it is fair weather 
mend the sails of the ship. 

Too JLate. 

Take no truce with the devil or this present 
world. Ye are little obliged to any of the two. 
Tell them, "Ye are too long a-coming; I have 
many a year since promised my soul to another, 
even to my dearest Lord Jesus, to whom I must 
be true." 

The Recompense. 

When I shall see you clothed in white raiment, 
washed in the blood of the Lamb, and shall see 
you even at the elbow of your dearest Lord and 
Redeemer, and a crown upon your head, and fol- 
lowing our Lamb and lovely Lord whithersoever 
he goeth, ye will think nothing of all these days. 

Supper Preparing. 

joy of joys ! that our souls knew there is such 
a great supper preparing for us, even howbeit we 
be but half-hungered of Christ here, and many a 
time dining behind noon, yet the supper of the 
Lamb shall come in time. 



It were good that we should knock and rap at 
the Lord's door ; we may not tire to knock oftener 
than twice or thrice. He knoweth the knock of 
his friends. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 25 

('la! m Your Own. 

To you who are in trouble there are some chap- 
ters, some particular promises in the word of God, 
made in a most especial manner, which should 
never have been yours so as they now are, if ye 
had had your portion in this life as others have ; 
and therefore all the comforts, promises, and mer- 
cies which God offereth to the afflicted are as so 
many love letters written to you. Take them to 
you. Claim your right, and be not robbed. 

Tarry Not. 

This world is to you a strange inn, and ye are 
like a traveller who hath his bundle upon his back, 
and his staff in his hand, and his foot upon the 
door threshold. Go forward in the strength of 
your Lord, with your face toward him who longeth 
more for a sight of you than ye can do for him. 

If ye knew the welcome that abideth ye when 
ye come home, ye would hasten your pace ; for ye 
shall see your Lord put up his own holy hand to 
your face, and wipe all tears from your eyes, and 
I trow that then ye shall have some joy of heart. 

A. Divine Treasure-Chest. 

Our Lord handleth us as fathers do their young 
children. They lay up jewels above the reach of 
the short arms of bairns. The bairns would put 
up their hands and take them down, and lose them 
sooner. Jesus Christ is the high coffer in which 
our Lord hath hid our life. 
3 



26 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Fears. 

Remember me, and that honourable feast, to our 
Lord Jesus. He was with us before. I hope he 
will not change upon us, but I fear that I have 
changed upon him ; but, Lord ! let old kindness 
stand. 

Healthful Sickness. 

My prayer to our Lord is, that ye may be sick 
of love for Him who died of love for you. Oh ! 
sweet were that sickness to be soul-sick for him. 
A living death it were to die in the fire of the love 
of that soul-lover, Jesus ! 

In, but not of the World. 

Be like to the fresh river that keepeth its own 
fresh taste in the salt sea. This world is not wor- 
thy of your soul ; give it a good-day when Christ 
cometh into competition with it. 

Safe Custody. 

Happy are they that can, with the apostle, lay 
their soul in pawn in the hand of Jesus. (2 Tim. 

i. 12.) 

Hope. 

Kings have some persons in their courts who 
will receive not present wages in their hand, but 
live upon their hopes. The King of kings also 
hath servants in his court, that for the present get 
little or nothing but the heavy cross of Christ, 
troubles without, and terrors within ; but they live 
upon hope. 



MANNA-CIIUMBS. 27 

Go ivith Him,. 

Jesus is saying in the gospel, " Come and see ;" 
and he is come down in the chariot of truth, and is 
now in the world, saying, " Who will go with me ? 
Will ye go ? My Father will make you welcome, 
and give you house-room ; for in my Father's house 
are many dwelling-places." Consent to go with 
him. 

The lovely One. 

I know and am persuaded that that lovely One, 
Jesus, is dearer to you than many kingdoms, and 
that ye esteem him your well-beloved, and the 
standard-bearer among ten thousand. 

A. Strong Tliread. 

The church hath been, since the world began, 
ever hanging by a small thread, and all the hands 
of hell and of the wicked have been drawing at the 
thread ; but, God be thanked, they only break 
their arms by pulling, but the thread is not broken, 
for the sweet fingers of Christ our Lord have spun 
and twisted it. Lord, hold the thread whole. 

Pray for XTs. 

I must have you praying for me. I am black- 
shamed for evermore with Christ's goodness ; 
and in private I got a full answer of my 
Lord to, be a graced minister, and a chosen arrow 
hidden in his own quiver. But know that this 
assurance is not kept but by watching and prayer, 
and therefore, dear Lord, help me. 



28 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

WhinonUiy. 

A trial is like to come on, but I am sure that 
our husbandman Christ shall lose chaff, but no corn 
at all. Happy are they who are not thrown away 
with the chaff: for we shall but suffer temptation 
for ten days, but those who are faithful to the 
death shall receive the crown of life. 

Conscience. 

If there be a hole in it, so that it shall take in 
water at a leak, it will with difficulty mend again. 
It is a dainty, delicate creature, and a rare piece 
of the workmanship of your Maker. Therefore 
deal gently with it, and keep it entire, that amidst 
this world's glory you may learn to entertain 
Christ. 

Hungry. 

To my grief, our communion is delayed till Sab- 
bath come eight days. I pray you advertise the 
people, that they be not disappointed in coming 
hither. Show such of them as you love in Christ, 
from me, that Jesus Christ will be welcomer when 
he cometh, in that he has sharpened their desire 
for eight days' space. 

Tliv Furnace, 

I am confident that Zion shall be well. The 
bush shall burn out, not consume, for the good will 
of him that dwelleth in the bush. But the Lord is 
making a fire in Jerusalem, and purposeth to blow 
the bellows, and to melt the tin and bra^s. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 29 



Home ! and stay not, for the sun is fallen low, 
and nigh the tops of the mountains, and the sha- 
dows are stretched out in great length. Linger 
not by the way. The world and sin would train 
you on and make you turn aside. Leave not the 
way for them, and the Lord Jesus be at the voy- 
age ! 

Xallc of it by Vie. Way. 

Madam, it is a part of the truth of your profes- 
sion to drop words into the ear of your husband 
continually of eternity, judgment, death, hell, and 
heaven. 

Tlie City on a Hill. 

Man,y eyes are upon you, and many would be 
glad that you spoil a Christian, and mar a good 
professor. Lord Jesus, mar their godless desires ! 

Satan's JPacJcJiorses. 

Satan layeth upon men a burden of cares above 
a load, and maketh a packhorse of men's souls 
when they are wholly set upon this world. We 
owe the devil no service. It were wisdom to throw 
off that load into the mire, and cast all our cares 
over upon God. 

Crown Him! 

Glory ! glory to our King ! Long may he wear 
his crown ! Lord, let us never see another 
king ! Oh, let him come down like rain upon the 



'" MAMA-CBUMBS* 

Ills. 

We fall by promise and law to Christ. lie won 
as by the sweat of his brows. 

lietter in Store. 

Ye have gotten little in this life, it is true indeed. 
Ye have then the more to crave. 

The Advocate. 

Yet a little while, and He that shall come will 
come, and will not tarry. I know that ere it be 
long the Lord will come and settle all disputes 
betwixt us and his enemies. Now, welcome, Lord 
Jesus ! 

Forbid Them ,\«(. 

Send me word about your daughter, whom I re- 
member in Christ ; and desire her to cast herself 
into his arms, who was born of a woman, and, being 
the Ancient of days, was made a creeping child. 
It was not for nothing that our brother Jesus was 
an infant. It was that he might pity infant be- 
lievers who were to come into the world. 

Cling Together. 

It is time now that the lambs of Jesus should 
all run together when the wolf is barking at them. 

JJeatli Unrvnhss. 

Death, which brings to the Lord, the woman's 
seed, Jesus, only a bloody heel and not a broken 
head, cannot be ill to his friends, who get far less 
of death than himself. 



MANNA-CltUMBS. 31 

Ilia Will be Done. 

Faith will teach you to kiss a striking Lord, 
and thus to acknowledge the sovereignty of God, 
in the death of a child, to be above the power of 
us mortal men, who may pluck up a flower in the 
bud, and not be blamed by him for it. 

Repining Useless. 

It is easier to complain of the decree than to 
change it. 

Pruning. 

Your Husbandman and Lord hath lopped off 
some branches already ; the tree itself is to be 
transplanted to the high garden. In a good time 
be it. All these crosses are to make you white 
and ripe for the Lord's harvest-hook. 

A Frowning World. 

This world never looked like a friend upon you. 
Ye owe it little love. It looked ever sour-like 
upon you : howbeit ye should woo it ; it will not 
match with you ; and therefore never seek warm 
fire under cold ice. This is not a field where your 
happiness groweth. It is up above. 

Weeping Wanderers. 

Seeing that our world is not hereaway, we poor 
children, far from home, must steal through many 
waters, weeping as we go, and withal believing that 
we do the Lord's faithfulness no wrong, seeing he 
hath said, "I, even I, am he that comforteth you." 



32 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 



I know that your heart is cast down, but send 
heavy heart up to Christ — it will be welcome. 



Oh, but acquaintance with the Son of God ! 
"My Beloved is mine, and I am his," is a sweet 
and glorious course of life, that none know but 
those who are sealed and marked in the forehead 
with Christ's mark, and the new name that Christ 
writeth upon his own ! 

Chastening JLove. 

I know that the sweetest of it is bitter to you. 
But your Lord will not give you painted crosses. 
He pareth not all the bitterness from the cross, 
neither taketh he the sharp edge quite from it. 
Then it should be of your selecting, and not of his, 
which would have as little reason in it as it would 
have profit for us. 

Suffer ititJi Him. 

I desire not to go on the lee side, or sunny side 
of religion, to put truth betwixt me and a storm — 
my Saviour did not do so for me, who in his suffer- 
ing took the windy side of the hill. 

Come Quickly! 

The Son of God will come with a start upon his 
weeping bairns, and take them on his knee, and 
lay their heads in his bosom, and dry their watery 
eyes. And this day is fast coming. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 33 

Be Beady. 

Seeing that ye know not but that the journey is 
ended, and ye be come to the water's side, in God's 
wisdom look over all your papers and your counts, 
and whether ye be ready to receive the kingdom 
of heaven as a little child, in whom there is little 
haughtiness and much humility. There is an ab- 
solute necessity, that, near eternity, we look ere 
we leap, seeing no man runneth back again to 
mend his leap. 

Christ on the Defensive. 

Christ has ever been thus in the world, he hath 
always the defender's part, and hath been still in 
the camp, lighting the church's battles. 

Suffer for Mini. 

They are not worthy of Jesus who will not take 
a blow for their Master's sake. 

Tliy Will be Bone. 

It hath pleased the Lord to let me see, by all 
appearance, my labours in God's house here are 
at an end, and I must now learn to suffer, in the 
which I am a dull scholar. I was willing to do 
him more service, but seeing he will have no more 
of my labours, and this land will thrust me out, I 
pray for grace to learn to be acquainted with 
misery. 

Not of the World. 

If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the 
world would not bark at you. 



34 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Poor Pay. 

Esau's portion is not worth his hunting. 

Pruning no Harm. 

The Antichrist and the great Red Dragon will 
lop Christ's branches, and bring his vine to a low 
stump, under the feet of those who carry the mark 
of the beast. But the Plant of Renown, the Man, 
whose name is the Branch, shall bud forth again 
and blossom as the rose, and there shall be fair 
white nourishes again, and with most pleasant 
fruits upon that Tree of Life. 

Cheer l T p. 

Ye break your heart and grow heavy, and forget 
that Christ has your name engraven on the palms 
of his hands in great letters. In the name of the 
Son of God, believe that buried Scotland, dead 
and buried in her dear Bridegroom, shall rise the 
third day again, and there shall be a new growth 
after the old timber is cut down. 

Israel Peturithtr/. 

Oh, to see the sight, next to Christ's coming in 
the clouds, the most joyful ! Our elder brethren, 
the Jews and Christ, fall upon one another's necks 
and kiss each other ! They have been long asun- 
der. They will be kind to one another when they 
meet. Oh, day ! oh, longed for and lovely day, 
dawn ! sweet Jesus, let me sec that sight, that 
will be as life from the dead ! 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 35 

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus. 

The day is near the dawning. The sky is riv- 
ing. Our Beloved will be on us ere we be aware. 

A.n Absent Lord. 

Because our Beloved was not let in by his spouse 
when he stood at the d«pr with his wet, frozen 
head, therefore he will have us seek him a while ; 
and while we are seeking, the watchmen that go 
about on the walls have stricken the poor woman, 
and taken away her veil from her ; but yet a little 
while, and our Lord will come again. 

Christ's Corn. 

In God's name let Christ take his barn-floor and 
all that is in it, to a hill, and winnow it ; let him 
sift his corn, and sweep his house, and seek his 
gold. 

The Tempter Bajflcd. 

I thank my God in Christ that I find the force 
of my temptation abated, and its edge blunted, 
since I spoke to you last. I know not if the 
tempter be hovering until he find the dam gather 
again, and we more secure ; but it hath been my 
burden, and I am yet more confident that the Lord 
will succour and deliver. 

Love. 

Love hath broad shoulders, and will bear many 
things, and yet neither sweat, nor faint, nor fall 
under the burden. 



36 MAftfr A- CRUMBS. 

Communion. 

Our Lord, that great Master of the feast, send 
us one hearty and heartsome supper, for I look 
that it shall be the last. 

The Furnace. 

For the sins of this land and our breach of the 
covenant, contempt of the gospel, and our defection 
from the truth, he hath set up a burning furnace 
in Mount Zion ; but I say it, and will abide by it, 
" The grass shall yet grow green on Mount Zion. 
There shall be dew all the night upon the lilies, 
and the moth shall eat up the enemies of Christ." 

Sifting. 

It is a benefit to you that the wicked are God's 
fan to purge you, and I hope that they will blow 
away no corn, or spiritual graces, but only chaff. 



Gold may be gold, and have the king's stamp on 
it, when it is trampled on by men. Happy are ye 
if, when the world trampleth upon your credit and 
good name, yet ye are the Lord's gold, stamped 
with the King of heaven's image, and sealed by 
his Spirit unto the day of redemption. 

Zion Safe, 

The floods may swell and roar, but our ark shall 
swim above the water. It cannot sink, because a 
Saviour is in it. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 37 

Hie Great Master Gardener. 

The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a won- 
derful providence, with his own hand, planted me 
here, and here I will abide till the great Master 
of the vineyard think fit to transplant me. 

God Victor. 

When the Lord is going west, the devil and the 
world go east ; and do you not know that it hath 
been ever this way betwixt God and the world, 
God driving, and they holding, God "yea," and 
the world " nay ?" But they fall on their back, 
and are frustrated, and our Lord holdcth his grip. 

Rally. 

Our Jesus is setting up himself as his Father's 
ensign, as God's fair white colours, that his soldiers 
may flock about him. Long, long may these 
colours stand ! 

One rrith Christ. 

Howbeit that Prince of renown, precious Jesus, 
be now weeping and bleeding in his members, yet 
Christ will laugh again ; and it is time enough for 
us to laugh when our Lord Christ laugheth — and 
that will be shortly. 

TJi'e Old Fath. 

An afflicted life looketh very like the way that 
leadeth to the kingdom. For the apostle (Acts 
xiv. 22) hath drawn the line and the King's mar- 
ket-way, through much tribulation, to the kingdom. 
4 



38 MANNA-CBUMBS. 

JBasy Victory. 

The world is one of the enemies that we have to 
fight with, but a vanquished and overcome enemy, 
and like a beaten and forlorn soldier, for our Jesus 
hath taken the armour from it. 

The Guarded Fold. 

If the beast should get leave to ride through the 
land, and to seal such as are his, he will not get 
one lamb with him, for these are secured and sealed 
as the servants of God. 

God's Stepping -stones. 

If the work be of God, he can make of the devil 
himself a stepping-stone for setting forward the 
work. 

Good Pay. 

If ye knew the mind of the glorified in heaven, 
they think heaven came to their hand at an easy 
market, where they have got it for threescore or 
fourscore years wrestling with God. 

On! 

For the love of the Prince of your salvation, who 
is standing at the end of your way, holding up in 
his hand the prize and the garland to the race-run- 
ners, forward ! forward ! faint not ! 

Don't rjo Alone. 

Take as many to heaven with you as ye are able 
to draw. The more ye draw with you, ye shall be 
the welcomer yourself. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 39 

Cod the Builder. 

If the Lord furnish not new timber from Leba- 
non to build the house, the work will cease. I look 
to Him who hath begun well with me. I have his 
hand-writ that he will not change. 

Christ our Avenger. 

If he suffer his servant to get a broken head in 
his own kingly service, and not either help or re- 
venge the wrong, I never saw the like of it. 

The Old Feud. 

It is an old feud that the rulers of the earth, 
the dragon and his angels, have carried to the 
Lamb and his followers. But the followers of the 
Lamb shall overcome, by the word of God. 

Wormwood. 

God hath filled me with gall and wormwood ; 
but I believe, which holdeth my head above the 
water. 

Cross and Crown. 

" Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life." That lovely one, Jesus, 
who also became the Son of man, that he might 
take strokes for you, write the cross-sustaining, 
soul-supporting strength of these words in your 
heart. 

Tliorns goad us on. 

If contentment were here, heaven were not 
heaven. 



40 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Love and Chastening. 

Thank God that Christ came to your house in 
your absence, and took with him some of your chil- 
dren. He presumed that much on your love that 
ye would not be offended. And howbeit he should 
take the rest, he cannot come upon your wrong 
side. I question not if they were children of gold, 
but ye would think them well bestowed upon him. 

A Two-fold JOord. 

Christ and truth are strong enough. 

A Strong Thread. 

I hang by a thread, but it is (if I may so speak) 
of Christ's spinning. 

A Welcome " Worst." 

Your faith may be boldly charitable of Christ, 
that, however matters go, the worst shall be a tired 
traveller, and a joyful and sweet welcome home. 

Tlie Day Breaheth. 

The back of your winter night is broken. Look 
to the east, the day sky is breaking. Think not 
that Christ loseth time or lingereth unsuitably. 
Oh, fair, fair, sweet morning ! 

Supper Preparing. 

Ye have reason to take in good part, a lean din- 
ner and spare diet in this life, seeing your large 
supper of the Lamb's preparing will recompense 
all. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 41 

The Mud Near. 

Our Redeemer is fast coming to take this old, 
worm-eaten world, like an old moth-eaten garment, 
in his two hands, and to roll it up and lay it by 
him. 

TJie WJieat Safe. 

The Son of God's wheat shall not be blown away. 

A. Good Fight. 

We have Jesus at our side, and they are not 
worthy of such a Captain who will not take a blow 
at his back. We are in sight of his colours ; his 
banner over us is love. Look up to that white 
banner, and stand. I persuade you in the Lord 
of victory. 

DrinJi of Christ's Cup. 

In the great work of our redemption, your lovely, 
beautiful, and glorious Friend and well-beloved 
Jesus was brought to tears and strong cries, so as 
his face was wet with tears and blood, arising from 
a holy fear and the weight of the curse. Take a 
drink of the Son of God's cup, and love it the 
better that he drank of it before you. There is 
no poison in it. 

A. Good Grip. 

" Why art thou cast down, my soul ? Why 
art thou disquieted within me?" That was the 
word of a man who was at the very overgoing of 
the precipice and mountain, but God held a grip 
of him. 



42 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Sold on to the Branches. 

In your temptations, run to the promises. They 
be our Lord's branches hanging over the water, 
that our Lord's silly, half-drowned children may 
take a grip of them. If you let that grip go, you 
will go to the ground. 

As Ever. 

Ye never knew one in God's book who put his 
hand to the Lord's work for his kirk, but the world 
and Satan did bark against them, and bite also, 
when they had the power. Ye will not lay one 
stone on Zion's wall, but they will labour to cast it 
down again. 

A Sweet Cross. 

I am filled with joy in my sufferings, and I find 
Christ's cross sweet. 

A Clouded Christ. 

The sun is gone down on the prophets, and our 
gold is become dim, and the Lord feedeth his people 
with the waters of gall and wormwood. Yet Christ 
standeth but behind the wall. His bowels are 
moved : he waiteth that he may show mercy. 

Hope to the End. 

When all these strokes are over, what will you 
say to see your well-beloved Christ's white and 
ruddy face, even his face who is worthy to bear 
the colours among ten thousand? Hope and believe 
to the end. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 43 

True Glory. 

This is your glory that Christ hath put you into 
the roll with himself, and the rest of the witnesses 
who are come out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their garments, and made them white in 
the blood of the Lamb. 

A. Sweet Charge. 

My charge to you is, to believe, rejoice, sing, 
and triumph. Christ has said to me, " Merry, 
merry; grace and peace for Marion Macnaught." 

Advancement. 

That honour that I have prayed for these sixteen 
years, with submission to my Lord's will, my kind 
Lord hath now bestowed upon me ; even to suffer 
for my royal and princely King Jesus, and for his 
kingly crown, and the freedom of his kingdom that 
his Father hath given him. The forbidden lords 
have sentenced me with deprivation and confine- 
ment. 

A. HffJit Jjoad. 

Howbeit Christ's green cross newly laid upon 
me be somewhat heavy, while I call to mind the 
fair days sweet and comfortable to my soul, and 
to the souls of many others, and how young ones 
in Christ are plucked from the breast, and the in- 
heritance of God laid waste, yet that sweet-smelled 
and perfumed cross of Christ is accompanied with 
sweet refreshment, with the kisses- of a King, with 
the joy of the Holy Ghost. 



44 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Tisgah. 

I am well, and my soul prospereth. I find 
Christ with me. I burden no man. I want noth- 
ing. No face looketh on me but it laugheth on 
me. Sweet, sweet is the Lord's cross. I over- 
come my heaviness. My Bridegroom's love-clinks 
fasten my weary soul. 

Sick Regrets. 

All would be well if I were free of old challenges 
for guiltiness, and for neglect in my calling, and 
for speaking too little for my well-beloved's crown, 
honour, and kingdom. Oh ! for a day in the as- 
sembly of the saints to advocate for King Jesus ! 

Heaviness. 

If I were free from challenges and a. high com- 
mission within my soul, I would not give a straw 
to go to my Father's house, through ten deaths for 
the truth and cause of my lovely, lovely one, Jesus ! 
But I walk in heaviness now. 

Flowers among Ttiorns. 

Oh, what a sweet steep it were up to my Father's 
house through ten deaths for the truth and cause 
of that Unknown, and so not half well-loved Plant 
of Renown, the man called The Branch, the Chief 
among ten thousand, the Fairest among the sons of 
men ! Oh, what unseen joys, how many hidden 
heart-burnings of love are in the remnants of the 
sufferings of Christ ! 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 45 

Sugar in the Gulf. 

Yet for all iny complaints, lie was never sweeter 
than he is now. One kiss now is sweeter than ten 
long since. Sweet, sweet is his cross ; light, light 
and easy is his yoke.- 

Benediction. 

Commending your ladyship and the sweet child 
to the tender mercies of mine own Lord Jesus, and 
the good will of him who dwelt in the bush. 

Sad Memories. 

I am sentenced with deprivation and confinement 
within the town of Aberdeen — but oh ! my guilti- 
ness, the follies of my youth, the neglects in my 
calling, and especially in not speaking more for 
the kingdom, crown, and sceptre of my royal and 
princely king, Jesus, do so stare me in the face, 
that I apprehend danger in that which is a crown 
of rejoicing to the dear saints of God. 

Christ JEnmigh. 

My well-beloved is some kinder and more warmly 
than ordinary, and cometh and visiteth my soul. 
My chains are over-gilded with gold. Only the 
remembrance of my fair days with Christ, and of 
my dear flock, whose case is my heart's sorrow, is 
vinegar to my sugared wine ; yet both sweet and 
sour feed my soul. No pen, no words, no genius 
can express to you the loveliness of my only, only 
Lord Jesus. 



46 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Sweet Cross! 

Welcome, welcome sweet cross of Christ ! wel- 
come, welcome fair, fair lovely royal king with 
thine own cross ! 

Indwelling Sin. 

Alas ! it is no cause of wondering that I am thus 
borne down with challenges ; for the world hath 
mistaken me, and no man knoweth what guiltiness 
is in me so well as these two, (who keep my eyes 
now waking and my heart heavy,) I mean my heart 
and conscience, and my Lord who is greater than 
my heart. 

A Well-fitting Cross. 

Christ hath so handsomely fitted for my shoul- 
ders this rough tree of the cross, that it hurteth 
me no wise. My treasure is up in Christ's coffers. 
My comforts are greater than ye can believe. My 
pen shall lie still for penury of words to write 
them. God knoweth that I am filled with the joy 
of the Holy Ghost. 

Self-satisfaetion. 

Our nature contenteth itself with little in godli- 
ness. Our "Lord, Lord" seemeth to us ten 
" Lords, Lords." Little holiness in our balance 
is much, because it is our holiness ; and we love to 
lay small burdens on our soft natures, and to make 
a fair court-way to heaven ; and I know it were 
necessary to take more pains than we do, and not 
to make heaven a city more easily taken than God 
hath made it. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 47 

Old Sores. 

My challenges are revived again, and I find old 
sores are bleeding anew. So dangerous and pain- 
ful is an undercoated conscience. Yet I have an 
eye to the blood that is physic for such sores. 

A. Pastor's Love. 

Ye are in my prayers night and day. I cannot 
forget you. I do not eat, I do not drink, but I 
pray for you all. 

Memories Sweet and Sad. 

The memory of the fair feast-days which Christ 
and I had in his banqueting house-of-wine, and of 
the scattered flock once committed to me, and now 
taken off my hand by himself, because I was not 
so faithful in the end as I was in the first two years 
of my entry, when sleep departed from my eyes 
because my soul was taken up with a care for 
Christ's lambs, even these add sorrow to my sor- 
row. 

IAght through the Clouds. 

Albeit this honest cross gained some ground on 
me by my heaviness, and my inward challenges of 
conscience for a time were sharp, yet now, for the 
encouragement of you all, I dare say it, and write 
it under my hand, "Welcome, welcome sweet, sweet 
cross of Christ." I verily think that the chains 
of my Lord Jesus are all overlaid with pure gold, 
and that his cross is perfumed, and that it smelleth 
of Christ. 



48 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Spiritual Sluggishness. 

Oh, how easy is it to deceive ourselves, and to 
sleep and wish that heaven may fall down into our 
laps ! 

Talcing Strokes with Christ. 

Blessed are they who are content to take strokes 
with their weeping Christ. 

Taking Strokes from ClirisVs Kami. 

Strokes with the sweet Mediator's hand are very 
sweet. He has always been sweet to my soul, but 
since I suffered for him his breath has a sweeter 
smell than before. 

Strength in Hope. 

When I look over beyond the line, and beyond 
death to the laughing side of the world, I triumph 
and ride upon the high places of Jacob, howbeit I 
am otherwise a faint, dead-hearted, cowardly man, 
often borne down and hungry in waiting for the 
marriage-supper of the Lamb. 

An Easy Cross. 

No king is better provided than I am. Sweet, 
sweet and easy is the cross of my Lord. 

Note. — The following written during confinement at Aberdeen. 
Christ's Gold Safe. 

I believe that the devil and the persecuting 
world shall reap no fruit of me, but burned ashes. 
For he will see to his own gold. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 49 

Help Christ. 

Is not Christ now crying — " Who will help me ? 
Who will come out with me to take part with me, 
and share in the honour of my victory over these 
mine enemies ?" 

Xfie only Want. 

I am every way in good case, both soul and body, 
all honour and glory to my Lord. I want nothing but 
a further revelation of the beauty of the unknown 
Son of God. 

A. Happy Prisoner. 

This prison is my banqueting-house. I am han- 
dled as softly and delicately as a fondled child. I 
am nothing behind I see with Christ. He can in 
a month make up a year's losses. 

JMCore Gold deeper down. 

I profess that I have never yet taken pains to 
find out Him whom my soul loveth. There is a 
gate yet of finding out Christ that I have never 
lighted on. It were good to be beginning in sad 
earnest to find out God, and to seek the right tread 
of Christ. Oh, if we could know the power of 
godliness ! 

Hoping Troubles Down. 

I defy crosses to embark me in such a plea 
against Christ as I was troubled with of late. I 
hope to over-hope and over-believe my troubles. 
I have cause now to trust Christ's promise more 
than his gloom. 
5 



50 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Christ more than Heaven. 

My own mind is, that if comparison were made 
betwixt Christ and heaven, I would sell heaven 
with my blessing to buy Christ. 

Spiritual Forget fa Incus. 

I find in myself that water runneth not faster 
through a sieve, than our warnings slip from us. 

Withering Jtiehes. 

Christ is more worth to you and your posterity 
than this world's May-flowers, and withering riches, 
and honour, that shall go away as smoke, and 
evanish in a night-vision, and shall, in one half 
hour after the blast of the archangel's trumpet, 
lie in white ashes. 

JLoolt Ahead. 

Draw by the lap of time's curtain, and look in 
through the window to great and endless eternity, 
and consider if a worldly price can be given for 
one smile of Christ's godlike ravishing counte- 
nance, in that day when so many joints and knees 
of thousand thousands wailing shall stand before 
Christ, trembling, shouting, and making their 
prayers to hills and mountains to fall upon them 
and hide them from the face of the Lamb ! 

Crown Him. 

Oh blessed hands for evermore that shall help 
to put the crown upon the head of Christ again in 
Scotland ! 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 51 

Salute no Man by the Way. 

Ye have need to make all haste, because the 
inch of your day that remaineth will quickly slip 
away. For whether we wake or sleep, our glass 
runneth. 

Talce Meed! 

Beware of a beguile in the matter of your salva- 
tion. Wo, wo, for evermore to them that lose that 
prize ! At length they lie down in sorrow, and 
are clothed with everlasting shame. 

Hun ! 

The greatest part of this world runs to the place 
of that torment, rejoicing, and dancing, eating, 
drinking, and sleeping. My counsel to you is, 
that ye start in time to be after Christ ; for if ye 
go quickly, Christ is not far before you — ye shall 
overtake him. Lord God, what is so needful as 
this — " salvation ! salvation !" 



Oh, if there were a free market for salvation 
proclaimed in that day when the trumpet of Grod 
shall awake the dead, how many buyers would be 
then! 

An ill-made Bed. 

" This shall ye have at my hand, ye shall lie 
down in sorrow." (Isa. 1. 11.) And truly this is 
as ill made a bed to lie upon as one could wish, for 
he cannot sleep soundly nor rest sweetly who hath 
sorrow for his pillow. 



52 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Fear God. 

Fear not worms of clay — the moth shall eat them 
as a garment. Let the Lord be your fear. He is 
with you, and shall fight for you. 

Crown Him I 

I protest, before men and angels, that Christ 
cannot be exchanged, that Christ cannot be sold, 
that Christ cannot be weighed. Where would 
angels or all the world find a balance to weigh him 
in ? All lovers blush when ye stand beside Christ ! 
Wo upon all love but the love of Christ. Hunger, 
hunger for evermore be upon all heaven but Christ ! 
Shame, shame for evermore be upon all glory but 
Christ's glory ! I cry death, death upon all lives 
but the life of Christ ! 

Engrafted. 

If I had been in Christ by adhesion only, as 
many branches are, I should have been burnt to 
ashes, and this world would have seen a suffering 
minister of Christ (of something once in show) 
turned into unsavoury salt. But my Lord Jesus 
had a good eye that the tempter should not play 
foul play and blow out Christ's candle. 

TJie File and Hammer. 

Oh, what owe I to the file and the hammer, to 
the furnace of my Lord Jesus ! Grace tried is 
better than grace, and it is more than grace, it is 
glory in its infancy ! 



MANNA-CRUMr.S. 53 

Speaking Crosses. 

How soon would faith freeze without a cross ! 
How many dumb crosses have been laid upon my 
back that had never a tongue to speak the sweet- 
ness of Christ as this hath ! When Christ blesses 
his own crosses with a tongue, they breathe out 
Christ's love, wisdom, kindness, and care of us. 

Mich Recompense. 

Verily he hath not put me to a loss by what I 
suffer. He oweth me nothing. For in my bonds 
how sweet and comfortable have the thoughts of 
him been to me, wherein I find sufficient recom- 
pense of reward ! 

Feasts in Exile. 

How blind are my adversaries who sent me to a 
banqueting-house, to a house of wine, to the lovely 
feasts of my lovely Lord Jesus, and not to a prison 
or place of exile ! 

Mrotherly Iiove. 

Dear brother, ye are in my heart to live and die 
with you. Visit me with a letter. Pray for me. 
Grace, grace be with you, and God who heareth 
prayer visit you, and let it be unto you according 
to the prayers of your own brother and Christ's 
prisoner. 

Clirist True. 

My prison is a palace to me, and Christ's ban- 
queting-house. My Lord Jesus is as kind as they 
call him. 

5 * 



54 MANNA-CKOIL.v. 

TJie more Crosses the better. 

I bless His great name who is no niggard in 
holding crosses upon me, but spendeth largely his 
rods that he may save me from this perishing world. 
Christ's cross is neither a cruel nor an unkind 
mercy, but the love-token of a father. 

Good Stock. 

All my stock of Christ is some hunger for him, 
(and yet I cannot say but that I am rich in that). 
My faith, and hope, and holy practice of new obe- 
dience are scarce worth speaking of; but blessed 
be my Lord who taketh me light, and clipped, and 
naughty, and worthless as I am. 

Patient Hope. 

Oh, that I could feed upon His breathing, and 
kissing, and embracing, and upon the hopes of my 
meeting and his, when love-letters shall not go 
betwixt us, but he will be messenger himself! 
But there is required patience on our part till the 
summer fruit in heaven be ripe for us. 

To the Aged. 

When ye are drinking the grounds of your cup, 
and ye are upon the utmost end of the last link of 
time, and old age, like death's long shadow, is 
casting a covering upon your days, it is no time to 
court this vain life, and to set love and heart upon 
it. It is near after supper. Seek rest and ease 
for your soul in God through Christ. 



MANNA-CltUMBS. 55 

Passing Knowledge. 

I dare say that angels' pens, angels' tongues, 
nay, as many worlds of angels as there are drops 
of water in all the seas and fountains and rivers 
of the earth, cannot paint him out to you. I think 
his sweetness since I was a prisoner hath swelled 
upon me to the greatness of two heavens. Oh, for 
a soul as wide as the utmost circle of the highest 
heaven that containeth all to contain his love ! 

TJtinJc of the JEnd. 

Remember when the race is ended, and the play 
is either won or lost, and ye are in the utmost 
circle and border of time, and shall put your foot 
within the march of eternity, and all your good 
things of this short, night-dream shall seem to you 
like the ashes of a blaze of thorns or straw, and 
your poor soul shall be crying " Lodging, lodging, 
for God's sake !" then shall your soul be more glad 
at one of your Lord's lovely and homely smiles, 
than if ye had the charters of three worlds for all 
eternity. 

Still Believe. 

To pray and believe now when Christ seemeth 
to give you a nay, nay, is more than it was before. 
Die believing. Die with Christ's promise in your 
hand. 

Only one Voyage. 

It is good to look to your compass, and all ye 
have need of ere you take shipping, for no wind can 
blow you back again. 



56 MANNA-CRUMB?. 

Heart Work, Hard Work, 

Believe me that I find it to be hard wrestling to 
play fair with Christ, and to keep good quarters 
with him, and to love him in integrity and life, and 
to keep a constant course of sound, solid, daily 
communion with Christ. Temptations are daily 
breaking the thread of that course. 

Sudden Destruction. 

Oh, how fairly have many ships been flying 
before the wind, that in an hour's space have been 
lying in the sea-bottom ! 

Take Bleed. 

How many professors cast a golden lustre as if 
they were pure gold, and yet are under that skin 
and cover but base and reprobate metal ! And 
how many keep breath in their race many miles, 
and yet come short of -the prize and the garland ! 

Sickness before Health 

Those who never had sick nights or days in con- 
science for sin, cannot have but such a peace with 
God as will undercoat and break the flesh again, 
and end in a sad war at death. 



Be humbled: walk softly; down, down, for God's 
sake, my dear and worthy brother, with your top- 
sail. Stoop, stoop ! It is a low entry to go in at 
heaven's gate. 



MANNA-CKUMBS. 57 

The New Paradise. 

Oh, what a sight to be up in heaven in that fair 
orchard of the New Paradise ; and to see and smell 
and touch and kiss that fair Field-flower, that ever- 
green tree of life ! His bare shadow were enough 
for me ; a sight of him would be the earnest of 
heaven to me. 

The Panting Hart. 

Christ, Christ, nothing but Christ can cool our 
love's burning languor. Oh, thirsty love ! wilt 
thou set Christ, the well of life, to thy head, and 
drink thy fill ? Drink, and spare not ; drink, love, 
and be drunken with Christ ! Oh, if we were 
clasped in each other's arms ! 

Fair-tveather Christians. 

The way to heaven is knotty, rough, stormy, 
and full of thorns. Many would follow Christ, 
but with reservation that, by open proclamation, 
Christ would cry down crosses, and cry up fair 
weather, and a summer sky, and sun, till we were 
all fairly landed at heaven. 

Temptations. 

If we knew ourselves well, to want temptation 
is the greatest temptation of all. 

Weeping Joys. 

Life is a post that standeth not still, and our 
joys here are born weeping, rather than laughing, 
and they die weeping. 



58 MANNA-CRUMB,';. 

One Heaven enough. 

We love to carry a heaven to heaven with us, 
and would have two summers in one year, and no 
less than two heavens. But this will not do for 
us. One — and such a one ! — may suffice us well 
enough. The Man Christ got but one only, and 
shall we have two ? 

Still too Little. 

Oh, if this world knew the excellency, sweetness, 
and beauty of that high and lofty One, that Fairest 
among the Sons of men, verily they would see that 
if their love were bigger than ten heavens, all in 
circles beyond each other, it were all too little for 
Christ our Lord. 

Blossoming Chains. 

I dare lay in pawn my hope of heaven that this 
reproached way is the only way of peace, and I 
verily esteem and find chains and fetters for that 
lovely one Christ to be watered over with sweet 
consolations, and the love-smiles of that lovely 
Bridegroom for whose coming we wait. 

A Strong Support. 

How can it be but that such weak eyes as ours 
cast water in a great smoke, or that a weak head 
should not turn giddy when the water runneth deep 
and strong ! But God be thanked that Christ, in 
his children, can endure a stress and a storm, how- 
beit soft nature would fall down in pieces. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 59 

Come in. 

Come in, come in . to Christ, and see what you 
want, and find it in him. He is the short cut (as 
we used to say), and the nearest way to an outgate 
of all your burdens. 

Gall in the Cup. 

Sin, sin, this body of sin and corruption imbit- 
tereth and poisoneth all our enjoyments. Oh, that 
I were where I shall sin no more ! Lord, loose 
the sad prisoner ! 

TJttle Enough. 

Who of the children of God have not cause to 
say that they have their fill of this vain life, and 
like a full and sick stomach, to wish at mid-supper 
that the supper were ended and the table drawn, 
that the sick man might run to bed and enjoy rest. 

Safe Over. 

Glad may their souls be that are safe over the 
firth, Christ having paid the freight. Happy are 
they who have passed their hard and wearisome 
time of apprenticeship, and are now freemen and 
citizens in that joyful high city, New Jerusalem ! 

JSeavenly-mindediiess. 

Our crosses would not bite us if we were hea- 
venly-minded. I know of no obligation which the 
saints have to this world, seeing we fare but upon 
the smoke of it ; and if there be any smoke in the 
house, it bloweth upon our eyes. 



60 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Cross-Fruit. 

I am sure that this is the best fruit of the cross 
when we, from the hard fare of the dear inn, cry 
the more that God would send a fair wind to land 
us, hungered and oppressed strangers, at the door 
of our Father's house. 

.Anything for Christ's saJce. 

Let him make of me what he pleaseth, providing 
he make glory to himself out of me. I care not. 

Bring Mini Baclt. 

Oh, how sweet a sight were it to see all the 
tribes of the Lord in this land fetching home again 
our banished King Christ to his own palace, his 
sanctuary, and his throne ! 

Full Assurance. 

Oh, that I had but a promise made from the 
mouth* of Christ of his love to me! And then, 
howbeit my faith were as tender as paper, I think 
longing, and pining, and greening of sick desires 
would cause it to bide out the siege till the Lord 
come to fill the soul with his love. 

Oh, the Depths ! 

Who knoweth how far it is to the bottom of our 
Christ's fulness ? Who ever weighed Christ in a 
pair of balances ? Who hath seen the foldings and 
plies, and the heights and depths of that glory 
which is in him and kept for us ? 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 01 

A. Huge Debt. 

I owe as many praises and thanks to free grace 
as would lie betwixt me and the utmost border of 
the highest heaven, suppose ten thousand heavens 
were all laid above other. 

A. Strong Knot. 

I am sure Christ hath by his death and blood 
casten the knots so fast that the fingers of the 
devils and hell-fulls of sins cannot loose it, and 
that bond of Christ standeth surer than heaven, or 
the days of heaven as that sweet pillar of the cove- 
nant whereon we all hang. 

Under His Wings. 

Christ, with all his little ones under his two 
wings, and in the compass or circle of his arms, is 
so sure, that cast him and them into the ground 
of the sea, he shall come up again and not lose one. 

JOove is Happiness. 

They are happy for evermore who are over head 
and ears in the love of Christ, and know no sick- 
ness but love-sickness for Christ, and feel no pain 
but the pain of an absent and hidden well-Beloved. 

A. Vain Cliase. 

We run our souls out of breath, and tire them 
in coursing and galloping after our night-dreams, 
to get some created good thing in this life and on 
this side of death. 
G 



62 MANNA-CRUMBS. 



Consider to what point of the compass your soul 
setteth its face. For all come not home at night 
who suppose that they have set their face heaven- 
ward. It is a woful thing to die and miss heaven, 
and to lose houseroom with Christ at night. 

Fragrant from afar. 

Oh, but heaven casteth a sweet smell from afar 
off to those who have spiritual smelling ! God hath 
made many fair flowers, but the fairest of them all 
is heaven, and the Flower of all flowers is Christ. 

Misjilaced Affection. 

Fie, fie upon us who love fair things, as fair gold, 
fair houses, fair lands, fair pleasures, fair honours, 
and fair persons, and do not pine and melt away 
with love to Christ ! Oh, would to God I had more 
love for his sake ! Oh, for as much as would go 
round about the earth, and over the heaven, yea, 
the heaven of heavens, and ten thousand worlds, 
that I might let all out upon fair, fair, only fair 
Christ ! 

Bottomless I>ove. 

If those frothy, fluctuating, and restless hearts 
of ours would come all about Christ and look into 
his love, to bottomless love, to the depth of mercy, 
to the unsearchable riches of his grace, to inquire 
after and search into the beauty of God in Christ, 
they would be swallowed up in the depth and height, 
length and breadth of his goodness. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 63 

Siveet Longings. 

Oli, how sweet and dear are these thoughts that 
are still upon the things which are above ! And 
how happy are they who are longing to have little 
sand in their glass, and to have time's thread cut, 
and can cry to Christ, " Lord Jesus, have over — 
come and fetch the dreary passenger !" 

Draw tJie Curtains. 

Oh, if men would draw the curtains and look 
into the inner side of the ark, and behold how the 
fulness of God dwelleth in him bodily ! Oh, who 
would not say, " Let me die, let me die ten times 
to see a sight of him !" Ten thousand deaths were 
no great price to give for him. 

Pantings. 

Oh, for a sight of eternity's glory, and a little 
tasting of the Lamb's marriage-supper ! Half a 
draught, or a drop of the wine of consolation that 
is up at our banquetting-house,-out of Christ's own 
hand, would make our stomachs loathe the brown 
bread and the sour drink of a miserable life. 

FigJit On! 

It is not possible to keep Christ peaceably, hav- 
ing once gotten him, except the devil were dead. 
It must be your resolution to set your face against 
Satan's northern temptations and storms for sal- 
vation. Nature would have heaven come to us 
while sleeping in our beds. 



(34 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Itich Compensation. 

When we shall come home and enter to the pos- 
session of our Brother's fair kingdom, and when 
our heads shall feel the weight of the eternal crown 
of glory, and when we shall look back to pains and 
sufferings, then shall we see life and sorrow to be 
less than one step or stride from a prison to glory, 
and that our little inch of time-suffering is not 
worthy of our first night's welcome home to heaven. 

Perverted Senses. 

Oh, that our eyes and our soul's smelling should 
go after a blasted and sunburnt flower, even this 
plaistered and fair outsided world, and then we 
have neither eye nor smell for the Flower of Jesse, 
for that Plant of Renown, for Christ, the choicest, 
the fairest, the sweetest Rose that ever God planted ! 

None like Htm. 

Suppose that our Lord would manifest his art, 
and make ten thousand heavens of good and glo- 
rious things, and of new joys, devised out of the 
deep of infinite wisdom, he could not make the like 
of Christ. For Christ is God, and God cannot be 
made. 

Well Heavened! 

Oh, how happy are they who get Christ for no- 
thing ! God send me no more for my part of para- 
dise than Christ ! And surely I were rich enough, 
and as well-heavened as the best of them, if Christ 
were my heaven. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 65 

A. Leaking Cup. 

Alas, my riven dish and running-out vessel can 
hold little of Christ Jesus ! 

Room for You. 

There are many heads lying in Christ's bosom, 
but there is room for yours among the rest, and 
therefore go on and let hope go before you. 

Conscience a Shield. 

I am* sure that conscience, standing in awe of 
the Almighty, and fearing to make a little hole in 
the bottom for fear of under-water, is a strong 
medium to hold off an erroneous conclusion in the 
least wing or lith of sweet sweet truth that con- 
cerneth the royal prerogative of our kingly and 
highest Lord Jesus. 

"That Malicious Murderer." 

I heard with grief of your great danger of per- 
ishing by sea, and of your merciful deliverance 
with joy. Satan will leave no stone unrolled, as 
the proverb is, to roll you off your Rock, or at 
least to shake and unsettle you ; for at that same 
time the mouths of wicked men were opened in 
hard speeches against you by land, the prince of 
the power of the air was angry with you by sea. 
See, then, how much ye are obliged to that mali- 
cious murderer who would beat you with two rods 
at one time ! 



Ob MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Preaching. 

The Lord knoweth that I preferred preaching 
of Christ, and still do, to anything next to Christ 
himself. 

OCIie Gracious Key-Holder. 

Thank your God who saith, " I have the keys 
of Hell and of Death." 

If Satan were jailor, and had the keys of death 
and the grave, they were stored with more prisoners. 
Ye were knocking at those black gates and ye 
found the doors shut, and we do all welcome you 
back again. 

He Ready. 

Have all in readiness against the time that ye 
must sail through that black and impetuous Jordan, 
and Jesus, Jesus who knoweth both those depths 
and the rocks and all the coasts be your pilot ! 

No Itemed i/. 

What ye do amiss in your life to-day ye may 
amend it to-morrow ; for as many suns as God 
maketh to arise upon you, ye have as many new 
lives. But ye can die but once, and if ye mar or 
spill that business, ye cannot come back to mend 
that piece of work again. 

Cling to the Truth. 

Hold fast the truth. For the world sell not one 
dram's weight of God's truth, especially now when 
most men measure truth by time like young seamen 
setting their compass by a cloud. 






MANNA-CRUMBS. 67 

Night Cometh. 

Ye see how the number of your months is writ- 
ten in God's book, and as one of the Lord's hire- 
lings ye must work till the shadow of the evening 
come upon you, and ye shall run your glass even 
to the last pickle of sand. 

Keep to Your Bargain. 

Y.e contracted with Christ, I hope, when first you 
began to follow him, that ye would bear his cross. 
Fulfil your part of the contract with patience and 
break not to Jesus Christ ! Be honest in your 
bargaining with him ! 

No Escape. 

Suffer we must — ere we were born God decreed 
it. 

An Experienced Father. 

He has been practised in bringing up his heirs 
these five thousand years, and his bairns are well 
brought up, and many of them are honest men 
now at home, up in their own house in heaven, 
and are entered heirs to their Father's inheritance. 
Now the form of his bringing-up was by chastise- 
ments, scourging, correcting, nurturing ; and see 
if he make exception of any of his bairns. No, 
his eldest Son, and his Heir, Jesus, is not excepted. 

Iiove- Coals. 

He knoweth how one of Christ's love-coals hath 
burnt my soul with a desire to have my bonds to 
preach his glory whose cross I now bear. 



68 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Cliained with Ziove. 

h ow, if we would ever so fain escape out of 
Christ's hands, yet love hath so bound us that we 
cannot get our hands free again ; he hath so ravished 
our hearts that there is no loosening of his grips ; 
the chains of his soul-ravishing love are so strong 
that the grave nor death will break them. 

Particular Providences of God do not contain Mis General 
Decree, 

God's directing and commanding will can, by no 
good logic be discerned from the events of provi- 
dence. The Lord sent Paul on many errands for 
the spread of his gospel where he found lions in 
the way. 

TTie Will for the Deed. 

Seeing that He knoweth our willing mind to 
serve him our wages and stipend is running to the 
fore with our God, even as some sick soldiers get 
pay when they are bed-fast and not able to go to 
the field with others. 

False Accusations. 

I. gave in a bill of quarrels and complaints of 
unkindness against Christ who seemed to have cast 
me over the dyke of the vineyard as a dry tree, 
and separated me from my Lord's inheritance. But 
high and loud praises be to our royal crowned 
King in Zion, that he hath not burnt the dry 
branch. 



MANNA-CUUMI5S. 69 

Through Much Tribulation. 

We would be content that our king, Jesus, should 
make an open proclamation and cry down crosses, 
and cry up joy, gladness, ease, honour, and peace. 
But it must not be so. Through many afflictions 
we must enter into the kingdom of God. 

Gilded Chains. 

It is but our soft flesh that has raised a slander 
on the cross of Christ. I see now the white side 
of it. My Lord's chains are all over gilded. 

Courage! Joy! 

Courage, courage, joy, joy for evermore ! oh 
joy unspeakable and glorious ! Oh for help to set 
my crowned King on high ! Oh for love to him who 
is altogether lovely ! 

Honeycombs in the Desert. 

My Lord Jesus has taken the withered, dry 
stranger and his prisoner broken in heart into his 
house of wine. Oh, if all ye, and all Scotland, and 
all our brethren with you knew how I am feasted ! 
Christ's honey-combs drop comforts. He dineth 
with his prisoner, and the King's spikenard casteth 
a smell. 

The Devil to be Preferred. 

I love a rumbling or raging devil in the kirk, 
(since the church militant cannot or may not want 
a devil to trouble her,) rather than a subtle or 
sleeping devil. 



70 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

A. Welcome Visitor. 

I cannot show you how matters go betwixt Christ 
and me. I find my Lord coming and going seven 
times a day. His visits are short, but they are 
both frequent and sweet. 

Prison Visions. 

Since I came to Aberdeen, I have been taken 
up to see the New Land, the fair palace of the 
Lamb. And will Christ let me see heaven to break 
my heart and never give it to me? 

Struggles. 

Hunger in me runneth to fair and sweet pro- 
mises. But when I come I am like a hungry man 
that wanteth teeth, or a weak stomach, having a 
sharp appetite that is filled with the very sight of 
meat, or like one stupified with cold under the 
water that would fain come to the land, but cannot 
grip anything casten to him. 

I can let Christ grip me, but I cannot grip him. 

Jjimping Faith. 

All I am able to do is to hold out a lame faith 
to Christ, like a beggar holding out a stump instead 
of an arm or leg, and crying, " Lord Jesus, work 
a miracle." 

Joy Above. 

Joy groweth up in heaven, and is above our 
short arm. Christ will be steward and dispenser 
himself, and none else but he. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 71 

Dead to the World. 

Mortification and to be crucified to the world is 
not so highly accounted of by us as it should be. 
Oh, how heavenly a thing it is to be dead, and 
dumb, and deaf to this world's sweet music ! 

FeatJicr- Chasing. 

We but chase feathers flying in the air, and tire 
our own spirits for the froth and over-gilded clay 
of a dying life. One sight of what my Lord hath 
let me see within this short time is worth a world 
of worlds. 

TJie Half not Told. 

There is more to be had of Christ in this life 
than I had believed. 

Christ Alone. 

Christ is so good that I will have no other tutor, 
suppose I could have the choice of ten thousand 
beside. I think now five hundred heavy hearts 
for him too little. 

The Sioeetest Way. 

I know no sweeter way to heaven than through 
free grace and hard trials together, and one of 
these cannot well want another. 

Panting. 

Oh, that the day would favour us, and come and 
put Christ and us into each other's arms ! I am 
sure that a few years will do our turn, and the 
soldier's hour-glass will soon run out ! 



72 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Providence — Us White Side. 

Providence is not rolled upon unequal and crooked 
wheels. All things work together for the good of 
those who love God and are called according to his 
purpose. Ere it be long, we shall see the white 
side of God's Providence. 

All for Christ. 

I am either suffering for Christ, and this is either 
the sure and good way, or I have done with heaven 
and shall never see God's face, which I bless him 
cannot be. 

A Loan, 

I write my blessing to that sweet child that ye 
have borrowed from God. He is no heritage to 
you, but a loan : love him as folks do borrowed 

things. 

Daft Mopes. 

It speaketh somewhat Avhen our Lord bloweth 
the bloom off our daft hopes in this life, and lop- 
peth the branches off our worldly joys well nigh 
the root on purpose, that they should not thrive. 
Lord, spoil my fool's heaven in this life, that I 
may be saved for ever ! 

Christ and the World. 

I wonder that any man living can laugh upon 
the world, or give it a hearty good-day. The Lord 
Jesus hath handled me so that as I am now dis- 
posed, I think, never to be in this world's obliga- 
tion for a night's lodgings. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 73 

A new Nick. 

I verily think now that Christ hath led me up 
to a nick in Christianity that I was never at before. 

Ebb and Flow. 

I have been up after deep down-castings and 
sorrows, before the Lamb's white throne in my 
Father's inner court, the great King's dining-hall. 

Tlie best Wish. 

More I cannot wish nor pray nor desire for your 
ladyship than Christ singled and chosen out from 
all created good things, or Christ howbeit wet in 
his own blood and wearing a crown of thorns. 

Barteriny Crosses. 

God forbid it come to bartering or exchanging 
crosses! For I think my cross so sweet that I 
know not where I would get the like of it. Christ's 
honey-combs drop so abundantly that they sweeten 
my gall. Nothing breaketh my heart but that I 
cannot get at the daughters of Jerusalem to tell them 
of my bridegroom's glory. 



Let him make of me what he pleases, if he make 
salvation out of it to me. 

A. Christian in Sad Earnest. 

I was a child before ; all bygones are but bairns' 
play. I would I could begin to be a Christian in 
sad earnest. 

7 



74 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Moving Z T pw(trd. 

None is so kind as my only royal King and 
Master. The King dineth with his prisoner, and 
his spikenard casteth a smell. He hath led me up 
to such a nick and pitch of communion with him- 
self as I never knew before. When I look back 
to bygones I judge myself to have been a child at 
A. B. C. with Christ. 

Fruit of Suffering. 

This is the fruit of my sufferings, that I desire 
Christ's name may be spread abroad in this king- 
dom in my behalf. 

A. Z,ost Will. 

We can in our prosperity sport ourselves, and 
be too bold with Christ ; yea, be that insolent as 
to chide with him : but under water we dare not 
speak. I wonder now at my sometimes boldness 
to chide and quarrel Christ, to nickname Provi- 
dence when it stroked me against the hair. But 
now swimming in the waters, I think my will is 
fallen to the ground of the water. I have lost it. 

I was once that I would not eat, except I ly,d care- 
fully chosen meat ; now I dare not complain of the 
crumbs and parings under his table. I was once 
that I would make the house ado, if I saw not the 
world carved and set in order to my liking ; now 
I am silent when I see God hath set servants on 
horseback, and is fattening and feeding the chil- 
dren of perdition. I pray God I may never find 
my will again. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 75 

A New tTesiis. 

ng, it was no 
meet with. He smileth more cheerfully, his kisses 
are more sweet and soul-refreshing than the kisses 
of Christ I saw before were. 

Or rather the King hath led me up to a measure 
of joy and communion with my Bridegroom that I 
never attained to before. 

A Heartful of Jesus. 

I will not strike sail to crosses, nor flatter them 
to be quit of them as I have done. Come, all 
crosses, welcome, welcome, so that I may get my 
heartful of my Lord Jesus. 

A Mistake* 

I took Christ's glooms to be as good as Scripture 
speaking wrath ; but I have seen the other side of 
Christ, and the white side of his cross now. 

Christ's Prisoner. 

I am as well as a prisoner of Christ can be, 
feasted and made fat with the comforts of God. 
Christ's kisses are made sweeter to my soul than 
ever they were. 

Burning, yet not Consumed. 

I said I was cast over the dyke of the Lord's 
vineyard as a dry tree ; but I see now, that if I 
had been a withered branch, the fire would have 
burned me long ere now. Blessed be his high 
name who hath kept sap in a dry tree ! 



76 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Heaven Necessary. 

There is a great necessity of heaven ; ye must 
needs have it. All other things— as houses, lands, 
children, husband, friends, country, credit, health, 
wealth, honour— may be wanted, but heaven is 
your one thing necessary. 

Beggarly Elements. 

My Lord hath brought me to this, that I will 
not flatter the world for a drink of water. I am 
no debtor to clay— Christ hath made me dead to 
that. I now wonder that I ever was such a child, 
long since, as to beg at such beggars. 

T/ie Storehouse. 

Oh, what I want ! ' I want so many things that 
I am almost asking if I have anything at all. 
Every man thinketh he is rich enough in grace till 
he take out his purse and tell his money, and then 
he findeth his pack but poor and light in the day 
of a heavy trial. I found that I had not to bear 
my expenses, and I should have fainted, if want 
and penury had not chased me to the Storehouse 
of all. 

Keep the Head above Water. 

Ye must learn to swim and hold up your head 
above the water, even when the sense of his pre- 
sence is not with you to hold up your chin. I 
trust in God that he will bring your ship safe to 
land. 



MANNA-CllUMliS. 77 

JAglit in Darkness. 

He was always kind to my soul, but never so 
kind as now, in my greatest extremities. I dine 
and sup with Christ. He visiteth my soul with 
visitations of love in the night-watches. 

A Timely Feast. 

Oh, how sweet and comfortable will the feast of 
a good conscience be to you when your eyestrings 
shall break, your face wax pale, and the breath 
turn cold, and your poor soul come sighing to the 
windows of the house of clay of your dying body, 
and shall long to be out, and to have the jailor 
open the door, that the prisoner may be set at 
liberty ! 

Greedy of Grace. 

Be greedy of grace : study above anything, my 
dear brother, to mortify your lusts. Oh, but pride 
of youth, vanity, lust, idolizing of the world, and 
charming pleasures take long time to root them 
out! 

A. motJi-eaten Coat. 

Verily I have seen the best of this world, a moth- 
eaten, thread-bare coat. I purpose to lay it aside, 
being now old and full of holes. Oh, for my house 



Tlie Danger. 

The only danger is that we give grace more to 
do than God giveth it ; that is, by turning his grace 
into wantonness. 
7 * 



78 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Enthrone Hi in! 

Oh, if my hairs, all my members, and all my 
bones were well-tuned tongues to sing the high 
praises of my great and glorious King ! Help me 
to lift Christ up upon his throne ! 

Room for Christ! 

Had I but the smallest sum to give my Lord 
Jesus, it would ease my pain. But alas ! I have 
nothing to pay. He will get nothing of poor me. 
But I am now that I have not room in my heart 
for such a stranger. 

Duty of a Christian Wife. 

Counsel your husband to fulfil my joy, and to 
seek the Lord's face. Show him, from me, that 
my joy and desire is to hear that he is in the Lord. 
God casteth him often in my mind — I cannot for- 
get him. 

A many-plied Jjove. 

There are curtains to be drawn by in Christ that 
we never saw, and new foldings of love in him. I 
despair that ever I shall win to the far end of that 
love, there are so many plies in it. 

A. Surrounding, Burdening love. 

I know not what to do with Christ. His love 
surroundeth and surchargeth me. I am burdened 
with it ; but oh, how sweet and lovely is that bur- 
den ! I am so in love with his love, that if his love 
were not in heaven, I should be unwilling to go 
thither. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 79 

Keep Watch. 

Ye draw nigh to the water side ; look to your ac- 
counts : ask your Guide to take you to the other 
side. 

Tips and Downs • 

I thought it had been an easy thing to be a 
Christian, and that to seek God had been at the 
next door. But oh, the windings and turnings, 
the ups and the downs that he hath led me through ! 

Tlie Sure Kail. 

I counsel you, madam, from a little experience, 
let Christ keep the great seal, and entrust him so 
as to hang your vessels, great and small, and pin 
burdens upon the Nail fastened in David's house. 

Short Summons. 

It has pleased the Lord to remove your husband 
soon to rest. But shall we be sorry that our loss 
is his gain, seeing the Lord would want his com- 
pany no longer ? Think not much of short sum- 
mons, for, seeing he walked with his Lord in his 
life, and desired that Christ should be magnified 
in him at his death, ye ought to be silent and 
satisfied. 

A Higher " Nick." 

I rejoice exceedingly that the Father of Lights 
hath made you see that there is a nick in Chris- 
tianity which ye contend to be at, and that is to 
quit the right eye and the right hand, and to keep 
the Son of God. 



80 MANNA-CRUMBb. 

Joy in Clirist Above. 

What joy have I out of heaven's gates but that 
my Lord Jesus be glorified in my bonds ? 

Nicknaming Christ. 

There is some pining and mismannered hunger 
that maketh me miserable and nicknameth Christ as 
a changed Lord. I cannot believe without a pledge. 
I cannot take God's word without surety, as if 
Christ had lost or sold his credit, and were not in 
my books responsible and law-abiding. 

A Jealous Jesus. 

Give him heart and chair, house and all. He 
will not be made companion with any other. Love 
is full of jealousies. He will have all your love, 
and who should get it but he ? I know that ye 
allow it upon him. There are comforts both sweet 
and satisfying laid up for you. Wait on. Trust 
Christ. He is an honest debtor. 

Christ before All. 

I love Christ's worst reproaches, his glooms, his 
cross, better than all the world's plastered glory. 
My heart is not longing to be back again from 
Christ's country. It is a sweet soil I am come to. 
I (if any in the world) have good cause to speak 
much good of him. Oh, hell were a good, cheap 
price to buy him at ! Oh, if all the three kingdoms 
were witnesses to my pained, pained soul, overcome 
with Christ's love ! 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 81 

Lavish. Kindness. 

I have no scarcity of Christ's love. He hath 
wasted more comforts upon his poor, banished ser- 
vant than would have refreshed many souls. My 
burden was once so heavy that one ounce weight 
would have casten the balance and broken my back, 
but Christ said, " Hold ! hold !" 

I am JBlaek, but Comely. 

Oh, that I should lay my black mouth to such a 
fair, fair, fair face as Christ's ! But I dare not 
refuse to be loved. The cause is not in me. 

A. Fatal Mistake. 

I doubt not but more would fetch heaven if they 
believed not heaven to be at the next door. The 
world's negative holiness, no adulterer, no murderer, 
no thief, no cozener, maketh men believe that they 
are already glorified saints ; but the sixth chapter 
of Hebrews may affright us all when we hear that 
men may take of the gifts and common graces of 
the Holy Spirit and a taste of the powers of the 
life to come to hell with them. Here is reprobate 
silver which yet seemeth to have the king's image 
and superscription upon it. 

A. Painful Path, 

His bairns must often have the frosty cold side 
of the hill, and set down both their bare feet among 
thorns. His love hath eyes, and in the meantime 
is looking on. 



82 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

A Garden Planted in Huins. 

Our spoiled works, losses, deadness, coldness, 
•wretchedness, are the ground upon which the Good 
Husbandman laboureth. 

Be not Discouraged. 

Many a whole soul is in heaven that was sicker 
than ye are. 

Struggling for Clear Vision. 

It is not desertion ; I know not what it is, but I 
was never so sick for him as now. 

Oh, for instruments in God's name that this is 
he, and that I may make use of it when, it may be, 
a near friend within me will say, and when it will 
be said by a challenging devil — "Where is thy 
God?" 

An Easy YoTte. 

I am in this house of pilgrimage every way in 
good case. Christ is most kind and loving to my 
soul. It pleaseth him to feast with his unseen con- 
solations a stranger and an exiled prisoner, and I 
would not exchange my Lord Jesus for all the com- 
fort out of heaven. His yoke is easy, and his bur- 
den is light. 

A Patient Guide. 

Salvation is supposed to be at the door, and 
Christianity is thought an easy task ; but I find it 
hard, and the way strait and narrow, were it not 
that my Guide is content to wait on me, and to 
care for a tired traveller. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 83 

Seek Lasting Olory. 

Set your heart upon heaven, and trouble not 
your spirit with this clay idol of the world, which 
is but vanity, and hath but the lustre of the rain- 
bow in the air, which cometh and goeth with a fly- 
ing March shower. 

At God's Charges. 

My Lord hath been pleased to make unknown 
faces laugh upon me, and hath made me well con- 
tent of a borrowed fireside and a borrowed bed. 
I am feasted with the joys of the Holy Ghost, and 
my royal King beareth my charges honourably. 

a Work in Faith. 

Duties are ours, and events are God's. 

Another Upward Step. 

I never before came to that nick or pitch of 
communion with Christ that I have now attained 
to. For my confirmation I have been these two 
Sabbaths or three in private, taking instruments in 
the name of God, that my Lord Jesus and I have 
kissed each other in Aberdeen, the house of my 
pilgrimage. 

In the Carriage with Christ. 

Who can blame Christ to take me on behind 
him, if I may so say, on his white horse, or in his 
chariot paved with love, through a little water ? 
Will not a father take his little fondled boy in his 
arms and carry him over a ditch or a mire ? 



84 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Sweet Kisses. 

Oh, who knoweth how sweet Christ's kisses are ! 
"Who hath been more kindly embraced and kissed 
than I, his banished prisoner ? 

Supping tvith Christ. 

It hath pleased him to make a sinner the like 
of me an ordinary banqueter in his house of wine 
with that royal, princely one, Christ Jesus. 

Hie Builder's Work. 

The lintel stone and pillars of the New Jerusa- 
lem suffer more knocks of God's hammer and tool 
than the common side-wall stones : and if twenty 
crosses be written for you in God's book, t*hey will 
come to nineteen, and then, at last, to one, and 
after that to nothing. 

Hungering Still. 

If he would cool my love-fever for himself with 
real presence and possession, I would be rich ; but 
I dare not be mislearned, and seek more in that 
kind, howbeit it be no shame to beg at Christ's 
door. 

A.n Unquenchable Coal. 

I am astonished and confounded at the greatness 
of Christ's love for such a sinner. I know that 
Christ and I shall never be even. I shall die in 
his debt. He has left an arrow in my heart that 
paineth me for want of real possession, and hell 
cannot quench this coal of God's kindling. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 85 

Stepping in Glory. 

Oh, what telling is in Christ ! Oh, how weighty 
is my fair garland, my crown, my fair supping-hall 
in glory ! 

Not no Had as it Seems. 

The din and gloom of our Lord's cross is more 
fearful and hard than the cross itself. He taketh 
the bairns in his arms when he cometh to deep 
water, at least when they lose ground and are put 
to swim, then his hand is under their chin. 

Winged Chains. 

I cannot but rejoice in his salvation who hath 
made my chains my wings, and hath made me a 
king over my crosses and over my adversaries. 
Glory, glory, glory to his high and holy name ! 

Strength as the Day. 

Not one ounce, not one grain weight more is 
laid on me than he hath enabled me to bear. 

A. Strange Whetstone. 

" The devil is but a whetstone to sharpen the 
faith and patience of the saints." I know that he 
but heweth and polisheth stones all this time for 
the New Jerusalem. 

Old Challenges. 

Old challenges now and then revive and cast all 
down. I go halting and sighing, fearing there be 
an unseen process yet coming out, and that heavier 
than I can answer. 



86 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Fear and Hope. 

I hope the pardon is now obtained, but the peace 
is not so sure to me as I would wish. Yet one 
thing I know, there is not a way to heaven but the 
way which he hath graced me to profess and suffer 
for. 

Anything for Christ. 

I protest to you, (my witness is in heaven,) that 
I could wish many pound-weight added to my cross 
to know that by my sufferings Christ were set for- 
ward in his kingly office in this land ! 

Complain of Self, not of God. 

It is not a good course to complain that we can- 
not get a providence of gold, when our laziness, 
cold zeal, temporising, and faithless fearfulness 
spoileth a good providence. 

Zet God have his Way. 

When our faith goeth to meddle with events, and 
to hold a court (if I may so speak) upon God's pro- 
vidence, and beginneth to say, " How wilt thou do 
this and that ?" we lose ground. We have nothing 
to do there. It is our part to let the Almighty 
exercise his own office and steer his own helm. 

Light at Eventide. 

I cannot, I dare not, but speak to others what 
God hath done to the soul of his poor, afflicted, 
exile prisoner. His comfort is more than I ever 
knew before. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 87 

Joy-perfumed Cross. 

How sweet must he be when that black and bur- 
densome tree, his own cross, is so perfumed with 
joy and gladness ! Oh, for help to lift him up by- 
praises on his royal throne ! 

Prove Him. 

Put Christ's love to the trial, and put upon it 
our burdens, and then it will appear love indeed. 
We employ not his love, and therefore we know it 
not. 

A. Sweet Exchange. 

I dare not say but my Lord Jesus hath fully 
recompensed my sadness with his joys, my losses 
with his own presence. I find it a sweet and rich 
thing to exchange my sorrows with Christ's joys, 
my afflictions with that sweet peace I have within 
myself. 

Times of Refreshing. 

He is come down as rain upon the mown grass ; 
he hath revived my withered root, and he is the dew 
of herbs. 

TJie Modi Heady. 

I hope when a change cometh to cast anchor at 
midnight upon the Rock which he hath taught me 
to know in this daylight, whither I may run when 
I must say my lesson without book, and believe in 
the dark. 

A. Goodly Prison. 

I am most secure in this prison. Salvation is 
for walls in it ; and what think ye of these walls ? 



88 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

A. New Lesson. 

No preaching, no book, no learning could give 
me that which it behooved me to come and get in 
this town. But what of all this if I were not misted 
and confounded and astonished how to be thankful 
and how to get him praised for evermore ? 

Joying in the Cross. 

Some have written to me that I am possibly too 
joyful of the cross ; but my joy overleapeth 
the cross — it is bounded and terminated upon 
Christ. I know that the sun will overcloud and 
eclipse, and that I shall again be put to walk in 
the shadow ; but Christ must be welcome to come 
and go as he thinketh meet. 

A Favoured Sj^y. 

It was not my flattering of Christ that drew a 
kiss from his mouth, but he would send me as a 
spy into this wilderness of suifering to see the land 
and try the ford, and I cannot make a lie of Christ's 
cross. I can report nothing but good both of him 
and it. 

Be not Deceived. 

It would be no art (as I noAV see) to spin small, 
and make hypocrisy seem a goodly web, and go 
through the market as a saint among men, and yet 
steal quietly to hell without observation. So easy 
is it to deceive men. I have disputed whether I 
ever knew anything of Christianity except the 
letters of that name. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 89 

The Well- Beloved's Shoulder. 

If he bear me on his back, or carry me in his 
arms over this water, I hope for grace to set down 
my feet" upon dry ground when the way is better. 
But this is slippery ground ; my Lord thought it 
good I should go by a hold, and lean on my well- 
Beloved's shoulder. 

Painful Memories. 

My neglects while I had a pulpit and other things 
whereof I am ashamed to speak, meet me now so 
as God maketh an honest cross my daily sorrow. 

Oh, for Assurance! 

If certainty of salvation were to be bought, God 
knoweth that if I had ten earths I would not chaffer 
with God. 

A. Great Mistake. 

Like a fool I believed, under sufferings for Christ, 
that I should keep the key of Christ's treasures, 
and take out comforts when I listed, and eat and 
be fat ; but I see now that a sufferer for Christ 
shall be made to know himself, and shall be holden 
at the door as well as another poor sinner, and will 
be fain to eat with the bairns and take the by- 
board, and glad to do so. 

Song in the Kight. 

The black crabbed tree of my Lord's cross hath 
made Christ and my soul very entire. He is my 
song in the night. 



90 MASNA-CRUMB8. 

A. Ziffle J'iety goes <t Good Way. 

Oh, if we could take pains for the kingdom of 
heaven ! But we sit down upon some ordinary 
marks of God's children, thinking we have as much 
as will separate us from a reprobate, and thereupon 
we take the play and cry " Holiday !" And thus 
the devil casteth water on our care, and blunteth 
our zeal and love. 

Oh, for Possession! 

Half a kiss is sweet, but our doting love will not 
be content with a right to Christ unless we get 
possession. Like the man who will not be content 
with rights to bought land, except he get also the 
ridges and acres laid upon his back to carry home 
with him. 

The Furnace. 

I hope in God to leave some of my rust and 
superfluities in Aberdeen. 

Good Credit. 

I would not wish a better stock, while heaven be 
my stock, than to live upon credit at Christ's hands, 
daily borrowing. 

Losing Business. 

I have not lighted upon the rich gate of putting 
Christ to the bank, and making myself rich with 
him. My misguiding and childish trafficking with 
that matchless Pearl, that heaven's Jewel, the 
Jewel of the Father's delights, hath put me to a 
great loss. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 91 

A. Full Fountain, but a Poor Receptacle. 

Christ, all the seasons of the year, is dropping 
sweetness. If I had vessels I might fill them, but 
my old riven, running-out dish, even when I am at 
the well, can bring little away. 

How little of the sea can a child carry in his 
hand ! As little can I take away of my great 
Sea, my boundless and running-over Christ Jesus. 

The Safe Surety. 

I would spoil my own heaven yet if I had not 
burdened Christ with all. I but lend my bare 
name to the sweet covenant. Christ behind and 
before and on either side maketh all sure. 

Unspeakable Excellence. 

Oh, would to my Lord that I could cause paper 
and ink to speak the worth and excellency, the 
high and loud praises of a Brother-ransomer ! 
The Ransomer needeth not my report, but oh, if 
he would take it and make use of it ! 

I should be happy if I had an errand to this 
world but for some few years to spread proclama- 
tions and outcries and love-letters of the highness, 
the highness for evermore, the glory, the glory for 
evermore, of the Ransomer, whose clothes were 
wet and dyed with blood. 

CTirist and the World. 

Put a low price upon the world's clay — put 
a high price upon Christ. 



92 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Hold On! 

Hold on ! Christ never yet slew a sighing, groan- 
ing child. More of that would make you won 
goods and a meet prey for Christ. 

A. Poicerful Magnet. 

Oh, well to my poor soul for evermore that my 
Lord called Grace to the Council and put Christ 
Jesus with free merits, and the blood of God fore- 
most in the chase to draw sinners after a Redeemer! 

Draw on Christ. 

I am no better yet, but Faith liveth and spendeth 
upon our Captain's charges, who is able to pay all. 
We need not pity him. He is rich enough. 

Ziove Still. 

Christ's love under a veil is love. 

Spiritual Trifling. 

I am like a child that hath a gilded book, that 
playeth with the ribbons, and the gilding, and the 
picture on the first page, but readeth not the con- 
tents of it. Certainly, if by my desires to my well- 
Beloved I could provoke devils, and crosses, and 
the world, and temptations, to the field, but oh ! 
my poor weakness maketh me lie behind the bush 
and hide me. 

Tlie Most Doleful Tiling in the World. 

Mistaken grace and somewhat like conversion is 
the saddest and most doleful thing in the world. 



MANNA-CRUMBS?. 93 



Be jealous over yourself and your own heart, 
and keep faith with God. Let him not have a 
faint and feeble soldier of you. Fear not to back 
Christ, for he will conquer and overcome. 

A weaJt-eyed Mope. 

Short, and silly, and sand-blind were our hope, 
if it could not look over the water to our best heri- 
tage, and if it stayed only at home and about the 
doors of our clay house. 

Coming Joy. 

How ye will rejoice when Christ layeth down 
your head under his chin, and drieth your face, 
and welcometh you to glory and happiness. 



He that would reckon and tell all the stones in 
his way, in a journey of three or foun hundred 
miles, and write up in his count-book all the herbs 
and flowers growing in his way, might come short 
of his journey. You cannot stay in your inch of 
time to lose your day — in setting your heart on 
this vain world. 

A Jealous God. 

In that our Lord took your husband to himself, 
I know it was that he might make room for him- 
self. He cutteth off your love to the creature, that 
ye might learn that God only is the right owner 
of your love. 



94 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Chracious Spinning. 

You must learn to make your evils your great 
good ; and to spin comforts, peace, joy, communion 
with Christ out of your troubles, that are Christ's 
wooers sent to speak for you to himself. 

CtHtsses Welcome. 

Thanks to God for crosses ! 

Joy in Trials. 

Seeing Christ has fastened heaven to the far end 
of the cross, and he will not loose the knot himself, 
and none else can, let us then count it exceeding 
joy when we fall into divers temptations. 



There is sand in your glass yet. Consider what 
peace and joy are in Christ's service. Think what 
advantage it will be to have angels, the world, life 
and death, crosses, yea, and devils, all for you as 
the King's sergeants and servants, to do your 
business. To have mercy on your seed and a bless- 
ing on your house. To have true honour and a 
name on earth that casteth a sweet smell. What 
dignity it is to be a son of God ! Dominion and 
mastery over temptations, over the world and sin. 

Be not Deceived. 

We would all keep both Christ and our right 
eye, our right hand and foot ; but it will not do 
with us. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 95 

Jiexv Drops. 

Truly I think Christ's misty dew a welcome 
message from heaven till my Lord's rain fall. 

A Headstrong love. 

I know he will not want you, and that there is a 
sweet wilfulness in his love, and ye have as good 
cause on the other part to be headstrong and per- 
emptory in your love to Christ, and not to part 
nor divide your love between him and the world. 
If it were more it is little enough, yea, too little 
for Christ. 

A Lauglihtg Cross. 

I am now every way in good terms with Christ. 
He hath set a banished prisoner as a seal on his 
heart, and as a bracelet on his arm. That crabbed 
and black tree of the cross laugheth upon me now. 
The alarming noise of the cross is worse than itself. 

Oh, if all the kingdom were as I am except these 
bonds ! My los^s is gain, my sadness joyful, my 
bonds liberty, my tears comfortable. This world 
is not worth a drink of cold water. 

No matter Sow. 

If ye get Christ, howbeit not the sweet, pleasant 
way ye would have him, it is enough. 

Give CUirist All. 

Your only errand to the world is to woo Christ. 
Therefore put other lovers from about his house, 
and let Christ have all your love. 



96 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Good Guests. 

He and his cross are two good guests, and worth 
the lodging. 

The Bead on Jesus's Bosom. 

My sky shall clear, for Christ layeth my head 
in his bosom, and admitteth me to lean there. I 
never knew before what his love was in such a 
measure. 

A Soft Couch. 

Go where you will, your soul shall not sleep 
sound but in Christ's bosom. Come in to him and 
lie down, and rest you on the slain Son of God. 



I sought him, and now a fig for all the worm- 
eaten and moth-eaten glory out of heaven since I 
have found him, and in him all I can want or wish. 

Christ hath given me the marriage kiss, and he 
hath my marriage love. 

A Poor Return. 

I have gotten much love from Christ, but I give 
him little or none again. My white side cometh 
out on paper to men, but at home and within I find 
much black work, and great cause of low sail and 
of little boasting. 

Christ's Ornaments. 

He will make a diadem, a garland, a seal upon 
his heart, and a ring upon his finger, of those who 
have avouched him before this faithless generation. 



• MANNA-CRUMBS. 97 

Grace the Deliverer. 

I was the law's man, and under the law and 
under a curse. But grace brought me from under 
that hard lord, and I rejoice that I am grace's 
freeholder. 

An Undesirable Calm. 

I have not now of a long time found such high 
spring tides as formerly. The sea is out and the 
wind of his Spirit calm, and I cannot buy a wind, 
or, by requesting the sea, cause it to flow again, 
only I wait on, upon the banks or shore side till 
the Lord send a full sea, that with up-sails I may 
lift up Christ. 

Sweet Longings. 

Sorrow for his absence is sweet, and sighs with 
"Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" have their 
own delights. Oh, that I may gather hunger 
against his long-looked-for return ! 

Even to dream of him is sweet. To build a 
house of pining wishes for his return, to spin out a 
web of sorrow, and care, and languishing and sighs, 
either dry or wet, as the case may be, because he 
hath no leisure, if I may speak so, to make a visit, 
or to see a poor friend, sweeteneth and refresheth 
the thoughts of the heart. 

Soft Wax. 

Christ's stamp and seal would go far down* in a 
young soul if he would receive the thrust of Christ's 
stamp. 



98 MANNA-CRUMBS. ' 

Is tliere not a Cause? 

Who hath more cause to boast in the Lord than 
such a sinner as I am, who am feasted with the 
consolations of Christ, and have no pain in my 
sufferings but the pain of soul-sickness, of love for 
Christ, and sorrow that I cannot sound aloud the 
praises of him who hath heard the sighing of the 
prisoner, and is content to lay the head of his op- 
pressed servant in his bosom under his chin, and 
let him feel the smell of his garments ! 

Three Strange Things. 

This love would keep all created tongues of men 
and angels busy night and day to speak of it. 
Alas ! I can speak nothing of it but wonder at 
three things in his love. First, freedom. Oh, 
that lumps of sin should get such love for nothing ! 
Secondly, the sweetness of his love. I give over 
either to speak or write of it. Thirdly, what power 
and strength are in his love ! I am persuaded it 
can climb a steep hill with hell upon its back ; and 
swim through water and not drown ; and sing in 
the fire and find no pain ; and triumph in losses, 
prisons, sorrows, disgrace, exile, and laugh and re- 
joice in death ! 

Persistent Kindness. 

Whether I will or not, he will be kind to me. 
As if he had defied my guiltiness to make him un- 
kind, he so breathes his love in on me. Here I 
die with wondering that justice hindereth not love. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 99 

A. Wondrous Escape. 

Heaven and angels may wonder that we have 
got such a gate of sin and hell. Such a back-entry 
out of hell as Christ made and brought out the 
captives by is more than my poor shallow thoughts 
can comprehend. 

" Be found me in a Desert JLand." 

I was in his eyes like a young orphan, wanting 
known parents, casten out in the open fields: either 
Christ behooved to take me up and to bring me 
home to his house and fireside, else I should have 
died in the fields. 

Ziove Expulsive. 

Let Christ's love bear most court in your soul, 
and that love will bear down the love of other 
things. 

Cloudless Ziove. 

Oh, for a year's lease of the sense of his love 
without a cloud, to try what Christ is ! 

Tardy Time. 

Oh, time ! time ! how dost thou torment the 
souls of those that would be swallowed up of Christ's 
love because thou movest so slowly ! 

What would I not give to have time that lieth 
betwixt Christ and me taken out of the way, that 
we might at once meet ! I cannot but think but 
that at the first sight I shall see of that most lovely 
and fairest face, love will come out of his two eyes 
and fill me with astonishment. 



100 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

The Feast Day. 

I know it is far after noon, and nigh the mar- 
riage supper of the Lamb. The table is covered 
already. well-Beloved, run, run fast ! Oh, 
fair day, when wilt thou dawn ! Oh, shadows, flee 
away ! 

A Good Darter. 

It were good to sell other things for him. For 
when all these days are over, we shall find it our 
advantage that we have taken part with Christ. 

Be Patient. 

Our sand-glass is not so long as we need to 
weary. Time will eat away and root out our woe 
and sorrow. Our heaven is in the bud and growing 
up to a harvest. Why, then, should we not follow 
on, seeing our span-length of time will come to an 
inch ? 

The Vessel Safe 

Think not much of a storm on the ship that 
Christ saileth in. There shall no passenger fall 
overboard, but the crazed ship and the sea-sick 
passengers shall come safe to land. 

The Indwelling Pope. 

I find one thing which I saw not well before, 
that when the saints are under trials and well 
humbled, little sins raise great cries and war-shouts 
in the conscience ; and in prosperity, conscience is 
a Pope to give dispensations, and let out and in, 
and give latitude and elbow-room to our heart. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 101 

Stvcet Communion, 

I am in as sweet communion with Christ as a 
poor sinner can be, and am only pained that he 
hath much beauty and fairness, and I little love. 

If you but saw Sim! 

Oh, if ye saw the beauty of Jesus, and smelled 
the fragrance of his love, you would run through 
fire and water to be at him ! 

Idols Fall before a Cross, 

All is but bairns' play till a cross without begets 
a heavier cross within, and then we play no longer 
with our idols. 

Salvation in a look. 

Oh, but Christ hath a saving eye ! Salvation is 
in his eye-lids. When he first looked on me I was 
saved. It cost him but a look to make hell quit of 
me. 

Wondrous Partnership. 

That Christ and a sinner should be one, and 
have heaven betwixt them, and be halvers of salva- 
tion is the wonder of salvation. 

A. Light in the Dark. Sour. 

When the time shall come that your eye-strings 
shall break, your face wax pale, your breath grow 
cold, and this house of clay shall totter, and your 
one foot shall be over the limit in eternity, it will 
be your comfort and joy that ye gave your name 
to Christ. 



102 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Look out for a Refuge. 

It were good that we prisoners of hope know of 
our stronghold to run to before the storm come on. 

Short-lived Pleasures. 

May flowers and morning vapor and summer- 
mist hasteth not so fast away as these worm-eaten 
pleasures which we follow. 

Laughing Faces. 

I would not exchange my prisons and sad nights 
with the court honour and ease of my adversaries. 
My Lord is pleased to make many unknown faces 
to laugh upon me and to provide a lodging for me. 

A. Great and Hopeless Loss. t 

No loss is comparable to the loss of the soul ; 
there is no hope of regaining that loss. 

Onward ! 

Go on through your waters without wearying ; 
your Guide knoweth the way ; follow him, and 
cast your cares and temptations upon him, and let 
not worms, the sons of men, affright you. 

The Ever- Living God. 

Ye have heard of the patience of Job. When 
he lay in the ashes God was with him. 

That God is not dead yet, he will stoop and take 
up the fallen bairns. Many broken legs since 
Adam's days hath he bound up, and many weary 
hearts hath he refreshed. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 103 

A. Sure Supply. 

None cometh dry from David's Well. 

Mis Will. 

I dare not say one word ; he hath done it, and 
I will lay my hand upon my mouth. If any other 
had done it to me I could not have borne it. 

Soundless JOove. 

Oh, the depths of Christ's love ! It hath neither 
brim nor bottom. Oh, if this blind world saw his 
beauty ! When I count with him for his mercies 
to me I must stand still and wonder, and go away 
as a poor bankrupt who hath nothing to pay. 

Pray without Ceasing. 

Give hours of the day to prayer. 

Safe in the Seas. 

I have been casten down and heavy with fears, 
and hunted with challenges. I was swimming in 
the depths, but Christ had his hand under my chin 
all the time, and took good heed that I should not 
lose breath ; and now I have gotten my feet again, 
and there are love-feasts of joy and spring-tides of 
consolation betwixt Christ and me. We agree well. 

Sad Mistake. 

Oh, this world thinketh heaven but at the next 
door, and that godliness may sleep in a bed of 
down till it come to heaven. But that will not do 
it. 



104 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Youth's Perils. 

Missive letters go between the devil and young 
blood. Satan hath a friend at court in the heart 
of youth ; and there pride, luxury, lust, revenge, 
forgetfulness of God, are hired as his agents. 
Happy is your soul if Christ man the house. 

The Good Goldsmith. 

The dross of my cross gathered a scum of fears 
in the fire, doubtings, impatience, unbelief, chal- 
lenging of Providence as sleeping and as not re- 
garding my sorrow ; but my Goldsmith, Christ, 
was pleased to take off the scum and burn it in the 
fire. And, blessed be my Refiner, he hath made 
the metal better, and furnished new supply of 
grace to cause me to hold out weight ; and I hope 
that he hath not lost one grain-weight by burning 
his servant. 

Oh, for his Presence! 

Nothing paineth me now but want of presence. 
I think it long till day. I challenge time as too 
slow in its pace, that holdeth my only, only fair 
One, my Love, my well-Beloved from me. 

A Crazed Ship. 

I am like an old crazed ship that hath endured 
many storms, and that would fain be in the lee of 
the shore, and feareth new storms. I would be 
that nigh heaven that the shadow of it might break 
the force of the storm, and the crazed ship might 
win to the land 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 105 

Tlie right sort of a Devil. 

Since we must have a devil to trouble us, I like 
a raging devil best. Our Lord knoweth what sort 
of a devil we have need of. It is best that Satan 
be in his own skin and look like himself. 

Second Tlioughts. 

Since my spirit, was settled and the clay has 
fallen to the bottom of the well, I see better what 
Christ was doing. 

Three Troubles. 

I want little of half a heaven, and I find Christ 
every day so sweet, comfortable, lovely, and kind, 
that three things only trouble me. 1. I see not 
how to be thankful, or how to get help to praise 
that royal King who raiseth up those that are 
bowed down. 2. His love paineth me and Avound- 
eth my soul, so that I am in a fever for want of 
real presence. 3. An excessive desire to take in- 
struments, in God's name, that this is Christ and 
his truth which I now suffer for. 

Sold Fast. 

Give not an hair-breadth of truth away, for it is 
not yours, but God's. 

Christ's Word and Man's 

His "Well done !" is worth a shipful of " Good 
days" and earthly honours. I have cause to say 
this, because I find him Truth itself. 



106 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 



Panting, 

My love to him hath casten my soul into a fever, 
and there is no cooling of my fever till I get real 
possession of Christ. Oh, strong, strong love of 
Jesus, thou hast wounded my heart with thine ar- 
rows ! Oh, pain ! Oh, pain of love for Christ ! 
Who will help me to praise ? 

Make Haste. 

Your afternoon's sun is wearing low. Time will 
eat up your frail life, like a worm gnawing at the 
root of a May-flower. Lend Christ your heart. 

Only Christ. 

He hath come to my prison and run away with 
my heart and all my love. Well may he enjoy it ! 
I wish that my love get never an owner but Christ. 
Fie, fie upon old lovers that kept us so long asun- 
der ! We shall not part now. 

2fo Tarrying. 

Death, as fast as time fleeth, chaseth you out of 
this life. 

Embracing the Cross. 

I take his cross in my arms with joy. I bless 
it, I rejoice in it ; suffering for Christ is my gar- 
land. I would not exchange Christ for ten thou- 
sand worlds. 

Cheer in Sadness. 

In my sad days Christ laugheth cheerfully, and 
saith, "All will be well." 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 107 

Ood alone Meads the Heart. 

I thought myself in a hard case. Some said I 
had cause to rejoice that Christ had honoured me 
to be a witness for him. And I said in my heart, 
" These are the words of men who see but mine 
outside, and cannot tell if I be a false witness or 
not." 

A. Many-plied Xiove. 

. There are infinite plies in his love, that the 
saints will never win to unfold. I would it were 
better known, and that Christ got more of his own 
due than he doth. 

Why does he Tarry ? 

Oh, time, be not slow ! Oh, run more speedily 
and hasten our banquet ! Oh, Bridegroom, be like 
a roe or a young hart upon the mountains ! Oh, 
well-beloved, run fast, that we may once meet ! 

Silver Joinings. 

At my first coming hither I was in great heavi- 
ness, wrestling with challenges, being burdened in 
heart (as I am yet) for my silent Sabbaths and for 
a bereaved people, young ones new-born plucked 
from the breasts, and the children's table drawn. 
I thought I was a dry tree cast over the dyke of 
the vineyard. 

Now, now he is pleased to feast a poor prisoner, 
and to refresh me with joy unspeakable and glo- 
rious. 



108 MANNA-CRUMBS. 



Unfathomable. 



I must give over all attempts to fathom the 
depth of his love. All I can do is to stand beside 
his great love, and look and wonder. 

If I had as many angel-tongues as there have 
fallen drops of rain since the creation, or as there 
are leaves of trees in all -the forests of the earth, 
or of stars in the heaven, to praise, yet my Lord 
Jesus would ever be behind with me. 

Trim, your Zamp. 

When the eye-strings break, and the breath 
groweth cold, and the imprisoned soul looketh out 
of the windows of the clay, house ready to leap out 
into eternity, what would you then give for a lamp- 
full of oil ? Oh, seek it now ! 

The Bush TJnbumed. 

Blessed be his great name, the dry tree was in 
the fire and was not burnt ; his dew came down 
and quickened the dew of a withered plant, and 
now he is come again with joy, and hath been 
pleased to feast his exiled and afflicted prisoner 
with the joy of his consolations. 

I weep, but I am not sad ; I am chastened, but 
I die not ; I have loss, but I want nothing ; this 
water cannot drown me, this fire cannot burn me, 
because of the good will of him that dwelt in the 
bush. The worst things of Christy his reproaches, 
his cross, are better than Egypt's treasures. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 109 

Be Careful. 

Let truth and Christ get no wrong in your hand. 
It is your gain if Christ be glorified, and your glory 
to be Christ's witness. 

A. Christian Directory. 

1. That hours of the day for the word and prayer 
be given to God. 

2. In the midst of worldly employments there 
should be some thoughts of sin, death, judgment, 
and eternity, with at least a word or two of ejacu- 
latory prayer to God. 

3. Beware of a wandering heart in private 
prayers. * 

4. Not to grudge, howbeit ye come from prayer 
without a sense of joy. Downcasting, sense of 
guiltiness, and hunger, are often best for us. 

5. That the Lord's day, from morning till night, 
be spent either in private or public worship. 

6. That the word be observed, wandering and 
idle thoughts be avoided, sudden anger, and desire 
of revenge. 

7. That known, discovered, and revealed sins be 
eschewed as most dangerous preparatives to hard- 
ness of heart. 

8. That we deal with all men in sincerity. 

Borne JOongings. 

I think that the sparrows and swallows that build 
their nests in the kirk of Anwoth are blessed birds. 
10 • 



110 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

" Cmne and See," 

There is nothing that will make you a Christian 
indeed but a taste of the sweetness of Christ. 

Challenges. 

I have been much challenged : 

1. For not referring all things to God as the 
last end. 

2. That I have not benefited by good company, 
and that I have not left some word of conviction 
even upon natural and wicked men by reproving 
swearing in them, or because of being a silent wit- 
ness of their loose carriage. 

3. That the woes and calamities of the kirk have 
not moved me. 

4. That unrepented sins of youth were not looked 
to and lamented for. 

5. That sudden stirring of pride, lust, revenge, 
love of honours, were not resisted and repented 
of. 

6. That death hath not often been meditated 
upon. 

7. That I have not been careful of gaining others 
to Christ. 

8. That my grace and gift bring forth so little 
or no thankfulness. 

Tlie Half not Told. 

All was but bairns' play between Christ and me 
till now. If one would have sworn to me I would 
not have believed what may be found in Christ. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. Ill 

Christ at Least. 

Whatever I be, the chief of sinners, a devil, and 
a most guilty devil, yet it is the apple of Christ's 
eye, his honour and glory as the Head of the 
Church, that I suffer for now, and that I will go 
to eternity with. . 

"Abominable and Filthy." 

I have seen my abominable vileness. If I were 
well known, there would none in this kingdom ask 
how I do. Many take my ten to be a hundred, 
but I am a deeper hypocrite and shallower pro- 
fessor than every one believeth. God knoweth I 
feign not. 

If I could get my finger ends upon a full assur- 
ance, I trow that I would grip fast. But my cup 
wanteth not gall. And upon my part despair might 
almost be excused if every one in this land saw 
my inner side. 

Come and See! 

Brother, I may now, from my new experience, 
speak of Christ to you. Oh, if ye saw in him what 
I see ! A river of God's unseen joys has flowed 
from bank to brae over my soul since I parted with 
you. 

Duties. 

Thoughts of atheism should be watched over, 
growth in grace should be cared for above all 
things, and falling from our first love mourned for ; 
conscience made of praying for enemies who are 
blinded. 



112 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Painful Compliments. 

I fear that ye have never known me well. If 
ye saw my inner side, it is possible that ye would 
pity me, but ye would hardly give me either love 
or respect. Men mistake me the whole length of 
the heavens. My sins prevail over me, and the 
terrors of their guiltiness. I am put often to ask 
if Christ and I ever did shake hands together in 
earnest. 

Admirable Mercy. 

My sins against light working in me in the very 
act of sinning have been met with admirable mercy. 
But alas, he will get nothing back again but wretched 
unthankfulness ! 

Strange Tips and Downs. 

I am in strange ups and downs, and seven times 
a clay I lose ground. I am put often to swimming, 
and again my feet are set on the Rock that is higher 
than myself. 

Idolizing Comfort. 

I am pained, pained that I have not more to 
give my sweet Bridegroom. His comforts to me 
are not dealt with a niggard's hand, but I would 
fain learn not to idolize comfort, sense, joy, and 
sweet, felt presence. All these are but creatures, 
and nothing but the kingly robe, the gold ring, 
and the bracelets of the Bridegroom. The Bride- 
groom himself is better than all the ornaments that 
are about him. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 113 

Which? 

I have now made a new question whether Christ 
be more to be loved for giving sanctification or free 
justification ? And I hold that he is more and 
most to be loved for sanctification. It is in some 
respects greater love in him to sanctify than to 
justify ; for he maketh us most like himself in his 
own essential portraiture and image in sanctifying 
us. Justification doth but just make us happy, 
which is to be like angels only ; neither is it such 
misery to be a condemned man and under unfor- 
given guiltiness, as to serve sin and work the works 
of the devil. 

God be thanked for ever that Christ was a told- 
down price for sanctification ! 

Enough in the Fountain. 

Oh, how little were it for that infinite fountain 
of love and joy to fill as many thousand thousands 
of little vessels the like of me as there are minutes 
of hours since the creation ! 

Oh, that we little ones were in at the greatest 
Lord Jesus ! Our wants should soon be swallowed 
up with his fulness. 

Brightest of Days. 

Oh, how sweet and glorious shall our case be 
when that fairest among the sons of men will lay 
his fair face to our sinful faces and wipe all tears 
from our eyes ! Oh, time ! time ! run swiftly and 
hasten this day ! 
10 * 



114 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Waiting. 

I am for the present hanging by hope, waiting 
what nry Lord will do with me. 

A Miracle of O-race. 

When I look to my guiltiness I see that my sal- 
vation is one of our Saviour's greatest miracles, 
either in heaven or earth. I am sure I may defy 
any man to show me a greater wonder. But seeing 
I have no wares, no hire, no money for Christ, he 
must either take me with want, misery, corruption, 
or then want me. 

Spiritual Laziness. 

The lazy professor hath put heaven, as it were, 
at the very next door, and thinketh to fly up to 
heaven in his bed, and in a night-dream. But 
truly that is not so easy a thing as most men be- 
lieve. Christ himself did sweat ere he won this 
city, howbeit he was the free-born heir. 

Poor, poor Praises. 

If I could set him as far above the heaven as 
thousand thousands of heights devised by men and 
angels, I should think him but too low. I pray 
you, for God's sake, my dear sister, to help me to 
praise. 

True Love. 

He is content to kiss my black mouth, to put 
his hand into mine, and to feed me with as many 
consolations as would feed ten hungry souls ! 



MANNA-CKUMBS. 115 

CJirist's Compass. 

Your heart is not the compass that Christ saileth 

by. 

Kedar's Tents. 

I see that providence runneth not on broken 
wheels ; but I, like a fool, carved a providence for 
mine own eyes, to die in my nest, and to sleep till 
my gray hairs, and to lie on the sunny side of the 
mountain in my ministry at Anwoth, but now I 
have nothing to say against a borrowed fireside, 
and another man's house, nor Kedar's tents, where 
I live, being removed far from my acquaintance, 
my lovers, and my friends. 

Good Fare. 

My Lord hath filled me with such dainties that 
I am like to a full banqueter who is not for com- 
mon cheer. 

Temptations. 

The greatest temptation out of hell is to live 
without temptations. 

Ziove Invincible. 

A heart of iron and iron doors will not hold 
Christ out. 

Helps. 

I have benefited by riding alone in a long jour- 
ney in giving that time to prayer. 2. By absti- 
nence and giving days to Grod. 3. By praying 
for others. For by making an errand to God for 
them, I have gotten something for myself. 



116 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Marhs. 

Ye may put a difference between you and repro- 
bates if ye have these marks — 

1. If ye prize Christ and his truth, so as ye will 
sell all and buy him and suffer for it. 

2. If the love of Christ keepeth you back from 
sinning more than the law or fear of hell. 

3. If ye be humble and deny your own will, wit, 
credit, ease, honour, the world, and the vanity and 
glory of it. 

4. Your profession must not be barren and void 
of good works. 

5. You must in all things aim at God's honour. 
Ye must eat,, drink, sleep, buy, sell, sit, stand, 
speak, pray, read, and hear the word with a heart 
purpose that God may be honoured. 

6. Ye must show yourself an enemy to sin, and 
reprove the works of darkness — such as drunken- 
ness, swearing, and lying — albeit the company 
should hate you for so doing. 

7. Keep in mind the truth of God. 

8. Make conscience of your calling in covenants, 
buying, and selling. 

9. Acquaint yourself with daily praying. Com- 
mit all your ways and actions to God by prayer, 
supplication, and thanksgiving, and count not much 
in being mocked, for Christ Jesus was mocked be- 
fore you. 

Frowns Smile. 

Dry wells send us to the Fountain. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 117 

Try Me. 

Lord, bear me witness if my soul thirsteth for 
anything out of heaven more than for your salva- 
tion. Let God lay me in an even balance and try 
me in this. 

View the Xand. 

Love heaven. Let your heart be on it. Up, 
up and visit the new land, and view the fair city, 
and the white throne, and the Lamb, the bride's 
Husband, in the Bridegroom's clothes, sitting on it. 

Prison Tuition. 

1 never knew by my nine years' preaching so 
much of Christ's love as he hath taught me in 
Aberdeen by six months' imprisonment. 

Cross-Slanderers. 

The world hath raised a slander upon the cross 
of Christ because they love to go to heaven by dry 
land, and love not sea-storms. But I write it 
under my hand (and would say more, if possibly a 
reader would not deem it hypocrisy) that my obli- 
gation to Christ for*a smell of his garments, for 
his love-kisses these thirty weeks, standeth so great 
that I should, and I desire also to choose to sus- 
pend my salvation to have many tongues loosed in 
my behalf to praise him ; and suppose in person I 
never entered within the gates of the New Jerusa- 
lem, yet so being Christ may be set on high, and 
I had the liberty to cast my love and praises for 
ever over the wall to Christ, I would be content. 



118 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Preachiiifj-Jionds. 

If my Lord would bring edification to one soul 
by my bonds I am satisfied. 

Oh, for One look! 

Ob, tbat I could bave leave to look in through 
the hole of the door to see his face and sing his 
praises, or could break up one of his chamber win- 
dows to look in upon his delighting beauty till my 
Lord send more ! Any little communion with him, 
one of his love-looks, should be my begun heaven. 

Young Heaven. 

Christ's love is young glory and young heaven. 
It would soften hell's pain to be filled with it. 

Infinite Beauty. 

If ten thousand thousand worlds of angels were 
created, they might all tire themselves wondering 
at his beauty, and begin again to wonder of new. • 

Christ Best. 

I vouch that Christ, and Sweating and sighing 
under his cross, is sweeter to me by far than all 
the kingdoms in the world could possibly be. 

Half-Kisses. 

My Lord giveth me but hungry half-kisses, which 
serve to feed pain and increase hunger, but do not 
satisfy my desires. His dieting of my soul for 
this race maketh me lean. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 119 

The Good of Bad Weather. 

Faith is the better of the free air and of the sharp 
winter storm in its face. Grace wither eth without 
adversity. 

Christ the Same. 

If Christ had such changeable and new thoughts 
of salvation as I have of it, I think I should then 
be at a sad loss. 

Crumbs. 

His broken meat is sweet unto me. I thank my 
Lord for borrowed crumbs, no less than when I 
was feasted at the communion table at Anwoth. 

Though he Slay me. 

Let him even say out of his own mouth, " There 
is no hope," yet I will die in that sweet beguile — 
"It is not so." I shall see the salvation of God. 
Let me be deceived really and never win to dry 
land, it is my joy to believe under the water, and 
to die with faith in my hand gripping Christ. 

I tmist Praise Him,. 

I must tell you what lovely Jesus, fair Jesus, 
King Jesus has done to my soul. Sometimes he 
sendeth me out a standing drink, and whispereth a 
word through the wall ; and I am well content of 
kindness at the second hand ; hi* bid is ever wel- 
come to me, be what it will. But at other times 
he will be the messenger himself, and I get the 
cup of salvation out of his own hand, and we can- 
not rest till we be in other's arms. 



120 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Mead'/, 

I am most ready at the good pleasure of my 
Lord in the strength of his grace for anything he 
may be pleased to call me to. Neither shall the 
last black-faced messenger Death be holden at the 
door when it shall knock. 

Tlie Devil in the Prison. 

I see that the devil can insinuate himself, and 
ride his errands upon the thoughts of his poor dis- 
tressed prisoner. 

A Strong Foundation. 

I would that I could build as much on this — my 
Christ is God — as it would bear. I might lay all 
the world upon it. 

Only Knock. 

We might beg ourselves rich (if we were wise) 
if we could hold out our withered hands to Christ, 
and learn to suit, seek, ask, and knock. 

A Good Whetstone. 

I find that my extremity hath sharpened the 
edge of his love and kindness, so that he seemeth 
to devise new ways of expressing the sweetness of 
his love to my soul. 

A New Opinion. 

Since I came to this prison I have conceived a 
new and extraordinary opinion of Christ which I 
had not before. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 121 

The Well's Head. 

I know that Christ's kisses will cast a more 
strong and refreshful smell of incomparable glory 
and joy in heaven than they do here ; because a 
drink at the Well of Life, up at the Well's Head, 
is more sweet and fresh by far than that which we 
get in our borrowed, old, running-out vessels and 
our wooden dishes here ; yet I am persuaded that 
it is our folly to postpone all till term-day. 

liove of Souls. 

Let me be weighed of my Lord in a just balance 
if your souls lie not weighty upon me. Ye go to 
bed and ye rise with .me. Thoughts of your soul 
(my Dearest in our Lord) depart not from me in 
my sleep ; ye have a great part in my tears, sighs, 
supplications and prayers. Oh, if I could buy 
your soul's salvation with any sufferings whatever, 
and that ye and I might meet with joy up in the 
rainbow when ye shall stand before our Judge ! 

•' Wretched man that I am !" 

I am not the man I go for in this nation. Men 
have not just weights to weigh me in. 

If Christ should refer the matter to me, (in his 
presence I speak it,) I might think shame to rate 
my own salvation. I think Christ might say, 
" Thinkest thou not shame to claim heaven who 
dost so little for it ?" I am very often so that I 
know not whether I sink or swim in the water. 
11 



122 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

'Delightsome Torments, 

Oh, what would I give to have a bed made to 
my wearied soul in his bosom ! I would postpone 
heaven for many years to have my fill of Jesus in 
this life, and to have occasion to offer Christ to my 
people, and to woo many people to Christ. I can- 
not tell you what sweet pain and delightsome tor- 
ments are in Christ's love. 

A Glimpse. 

In my race he. hath come near me and let me 
see the gold and crown. 

'Living on Credit. 

My faith is richer to live upon credit and Christ's 
borrowed money than to have much on hand. 

Make All Sure. 

Examine yourself if ye be in good earnest in 
Christ. 

Many think they believe, but never tremble. 
The devils are further on than these. (James ii. 
19.) Make sure to yourself that ye are above 
ordinary professors. 

Let them- do their Worst. 

No created powers in hell or out of hell can mar 
the music of our Lord Jesus, or spoil our song of 

j°y- 

A Lost Heart. 

Since he looked on me my heart is not mine 
own ; he hath run away to heaven with it. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 123 

Water for Satan's Coal. 

Sanctified thoughts, thoughts made conscience 
of, and called in and kept in one, are green fuel 
that burns not, and are a water for Satan's coal. 

Doubt-Drugs. 

Doubtings are your sins, but they are Christ's 
drugs, and ingredients that the Physician maketh 
use of for the curing of your pride. 

A. Slippery Way. 

There is not such a glassy, icy, slippery piece 
of way betwixt you and heaven as youth ; and I 
have experience to say with me here, and to seal 
what I assert. The old ashes of the sins of my 
youth are now fire of sorrow to me. I have seen 
the devil, as it were, dead and buried, and yet rise 
again and be a worse devil than ever he was. 
Therefore, my brother, beware of a green young 
devil that hath never been buried. 

Why Mourn? 

We see God's fed oxen prepared for the day of 
slaughter go dancing and singing down to the black 
chamber of hell, and why should we go to heaven 
weeping ? 

Bad Metal. 

If this world and the lusts thereof be your de- 
light, I know not what Christ can make of you. 
Ye cannot be metal to be a vessel of glory and 
mercy. 



124 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

In the Book. 

I cannot indeed see through my cross to the far 
end, yet I believe I am in Christ's books, and in 
his decree (not yet unfolded to me), a man triumph- 
ing, dancing, and singing on the other side of the 
Red Sea, and laughing and praising the Lamb. 

The Sweets of Faith. 

Sweet, sweet for evermore would my life be if 
I could keep faith in exercise ! But I see that 
my fire cannot always Cast light. 

Hopelessly in Debt. 

I am just like a man who hath nothing to pay 
his thousands of debt ; all that can be gotten of 
him is to seize his person. Except Christ would 
seize upon myself and make the readiest payment 
that can be of my heart and love to himself, I 
have no other thing to give him. 

Suddenly. 

Our Master will be on us all in a clap, ere ever 
we wit. 

The Lord's Fan. 

That day will discover all our whites and our 
blacks. 

Let us make our part of it good, that it may be 
able to abide the fire when hay and stubble shall 
be burned to ashes. Nothing, nothing,I say noth- 
ing but sound sanctification can abide the Lord's 
fan. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 125 

Perfumes will Rise. 

I cannot but speak what I have felt ; seeing my 
Lord Jesus hath broken a box of spikenard upon 
the head of his poor prisoner, and it is hard to 
hide a sweet smell. It is pain to smother Christ's 
love. It will out, whether we will or not. 

The Sappiest Sard Tree. 

A cross, especially when he cometh with his 
arms full of joys, is the happiest hard tree that 
was ever laid upon my weak shoulder. Christ and 
his cross together are sweet company and a blessed 
couple. 

Cast Doivn, but not Destroyed. 

I dare not say that the Lord hath put out my 
candle, and casten water upon my poor coal, and 
broken the stakes of my tabernacle : but I have 
tasted bitterness and eaten gall and wormwood 
since the day when my Lord laid bonds upon me 
to speak no more. 

Satan's Advantage. 

I find that the devil hath the advantage of the 
ground in this battle ; for he fighteth on known 
ground in our corrupt nature. 

Down tvitli Idols. 

Oh, if every one ,would put away himself, his 
own self, his own ease, his own pleasure, his own 
credit, his own twenty things, his own hundred 
things, which he setteth up as idols above Christ ! 
11 * 



126 MANNA-CRUMBS. 



1. That salvation is one of Christ's dainties 
which he giveth to but few. 

2. That it is violent sweating and striving that 
taketh heaven. 

3. That it cost Christ's blood to purchase that 
house to sinners. 

4. That many make a start towards heaven who 
fall back and win not to the top of the mount. 

5. Many go far on and reform many things, and 
can find tears as Esau did ; and suffer hunger for 
truth as Judas did ; and wish and desire the end 
of the righteous as Balaam did ; and profess fair, 
and fight for the Lord as Saul did ; and desire the 
saints to pray for them as Pharaoh and Simon 
Magus did ; and prophesy and speak for Christ as 
Caiaphas did ; and walk softly and mourn for fear 
of judgments as Ahab did ; and put away gross 
sins and idolatry as Jehu did ; and hear the word 
of God gladly, and reform their life in many things 
according to the word, as Herod did; and say 
" Master " to Christ, "I will follow thee whither 
thou goest," as the man who offered to be Christ's 
servant, (Matt. viii. 19) ; and may taste of the 
virtues of the life to come, and be partaker of the 
wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit, and taste of 
the good word of God, as the apostates, who sin 
against the Holy Ghost, (Heb. vi.); — and yet all 
these are but like gold in chink and colour, and 
are plaited brass and base metal. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 127 

A Narrotv, TJiorny Way. 

Go on in your journey to heaven, and be content 
with such fare by the way as Christ and his fol- 
lowers have had before you. For they had always 
the wind on their faces ; and our Lord hath not 
changed the way to us for our ease, but will have 
us following our sweet Guide. 

TJie jLncJwr- Cable Strong. 

Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted! 
thread as "I imagine so," or "It is likely;" but 
the cable, the strong hawser of our fastened anchor, 
is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. 

TJie Mace set before us. 

Seeing a piece of suffering is carved to every 
one of us, less or more, as Infinite Wisdom has 
thought good, our part js to harden and habituate 
our soft and thin-skinned nature to endure fire and 
water, devils, lions, men, losses, wo hearts as these 
that are looked upon by God, angels, men, and 
devils. 

Ziittle by Little. 

Put off a sin, or a piece of it, as of anger, wrath, 
lust, or intemperance, every day, that ye may more 
easily master the remnant of your corruption. 

Be Quite Heady. 

Sleep not sound till ye find yourself in that case 
that ye dare look death in the face, and durst haz- 
ard your soul upon eternity. 



128 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Rich 'Return, 

Oh, that we could breathe out new hope and new 
submission every day into Christ's lap ! For cer- 
tainly a weight of glory well weighed, yea increas- 
ing to a far more exceeding and eternal weight, 
shall recompense both weight and length of light, 
and clipped, and short-dated crosses. 

Self-Helplessness, 

Oh, if it be hard to win one foot or half an inch 
out of our own will, our own wit, out of our own 
ease and worldly lusts, and so to deny oarself and 
to say, " It is not I, but Christ ; not I, but grace ; 
not I, but God's glory ; not I, but God's love con- 
straining me ; not I, but the Lord's word ; not I, 
but the Lord's commanding power in me ;" — oh, 
what pains, and what a death it is to nature to 
turn me, myself, my lust,' my ease, my credit, over 
unto my Lord, my Saviour, my King, and my God, 
my Lord's will, my Lord's grace ! 

Patience brings Perfection. 

Submissive on-waiting for the Lord will at length 
ripen the joy and deliverance of his own. 

Pull tlie Soul Round, 

Pull at your soul, and draw it aside from the 
company that it is with, and sound and whisper 
into it news of eternity, death, judgment, heaven, 
and hell. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 120 

lll-Kaveleil Work. 

Twenty times a day I ravel my heaven, and then 
I must come with my ill-raveled work to Christ, to 
cumber him, as it were, to right it. 

God be thanked for many spoiled salvations, and 
many ill-raveled heaps hath Christ mended since 
first he entered Tutor to lost mankind. 

Bard Climbing. 

It cost Christ and all his followers sharp showers 
and hot sweats, ere they won to the top of the 
mountain, but our soft nature would still have 
heaven coming down to our bed-side when we are 
sleeping, and lying down with us, that we might 
go to heaven in warm clothes. 

A. Hoot out of a J>ry Ch'ound. 

Alas, the wrong side of Christ, to speak so, his 
black side, his suffering side, his wounds, his bare 
coat, his want, his wrongs, the oppressions of men 
done to him, are turned toward men's eyes, and 
they see not the best and fairest side of Christ, 
nor see they his amiable face and his beauty, that 
men and angels wonder at. 

Oh, for even a XooTz! 

I were happy for evermore to get leave to stand 
but beside Christ and his love, and look in, sup- 
pose I were interdicted of God to come near hand, 
touch, or embrace, kiss, or set to my sinful head 
and drink myself drunk with that lovely thing. 



130 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

A Strong Tiord. 

Lay all your loads and your weights by faith 
upon Christ ; take ease to yourself and let him bear 
all ; he can — he is able — he will bear you, howbeit 
hell were upon your back. 

A Good Start. 

Ye have gotten a great advantage in the way to 
heaven, that ye have started to the gate in the 
morning. Like a fool as I was, I suffered my sun 
to be high in the heaven, and near afternoon, be- 
fore ever I took the gate by the end. I pray you 
now keep the advantage ye have. 

Make Sure Work. 

Cast the earth deep, and down, down with the 
old work, the building of confusion that was there 
before ; and let Christ lay new work and make a 
new creation within you. 



I thought not the hundredth part of Christ long 
since that I do now ; though alas ! my thoughts 
are still infinitely below his worth. 

A Treacherous Profession. 

If ye love but Christ's sunny side, and would 
have only summer weather and a land-gate, not a 
sea-way to heaven, your profession will play you a 
slip, and the winter-well will go dry again in sum- 
mer. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 131 

Surrender to Christ. 

Oh, blessed soul that could sacrifice his will, and 
go to heaven having lost his will, and made resig- 
nation of it to Christ ! I would seek no more than 
that Christ were absolute king over my will, and 
that my will were a sufferer in all crosses without 
meeting Christ with such a word — " Why is it 
thus ?" 

Precious Cross. 

For Christ's cross, especially the garland and 
flower of all crosses, to suffer for his name, I es- 
teem it more than I can write or speak to you. 

A Strong Helper. 

Christ (whoever be one) is still at the heavy end 
of this black tree, and so it is but as a feather to 
me. 

ZiOoJc Iiong and Often. 

Would to God that all cold-blooded, faint-hearted 
soldiers of Christ would look again and again to 
his love ; and when they look, I would have them 
look again and again, and fill themselves with be- 
holding of Christ's beauty. 

Oh, for an Unveiled Saviour ! 

I wish still that my love had but leave to stand 
beside beautiful Jesus, and to get the mercy of 
looking to him, and burning for him, suppose that 
possession of him were suspended and postponed 
till my Lord fold together the leaves and the sides 
of this, of the little shepherd's tent of clay. 



132 MANNA-CRUMES. 

What can mere Creatures do? 

Set ten thousand thousand new-made worlds of 
angels, and elect men, and double them in number 
ten thousand thousand thousand times. Let their 
heart and tongues be ten thousand thousand times 
more agile and large than the heart and tongues 
of seraphims that stand with six wings before him, 
when they have said all for the glorifying and 
praising of the Lord Jesus, they have but spoken 
little or nothing. 

God's Long-suffering our Salvation. 

If he had not been God, and if long-suffering in 
Christ were not like Christ himself, we should long 
ago have broken Christ's mercies into ten pieces, 
and put an iron bar on our salvation that mercy 
should not have been able to break or overleap. 

Oh, sweet stability of sure-bottomed salvation ! 
Who could win heaven if this were not so ? Who 
could be saved if God were not God, and if he were 
not such a God as he is ? 

Doubting and Trying. 

There is great odds between doubting that we 
have grace and trying if we have grace. The for- 
mer may be sin — the latter is good. 

Fighting— Victory. 

The want of fighting were a mark of no grace, 
but I shall not think the want of victory is such a 
mark. 






MANNA-CRUMBS. 133 

A IAfeless II curt. 

Alas, the pity ! Christ hath beauty for me, but 
I have not love for him. Oh, what pain is it to 
see Christ in his beauty, and then want a heart 
and love for him ! But I see that want we must 
till Christ lend us never to be paid again. 

A. Precious Sorrow. 

It is my daily-growing sorrow that I am con- 
founded with his incomparable love, and that he 
doeth so great things for my soul, and hath got 
never yet anything of me worth speaking of. 

Tlie Crust and tlie Core. 

If ye look both to the laughing side and the 
weeping side of this world, and if ye look not only 
to the skin and colour of things, but into their in- 
wards, and the heart of their excellency, ye shall 
see that one look of Christ's lovely eye, one kiss 
of his fairest face, is worth ten thousand worlds of 
such rotten stuff as the foolish sons of men set their 
hearts upon. 

" Vp tvith Christ." 

Look into those depths (without a bottom) of 
loveliness, sweetness, beauty, excellency, glory, 
goodness, grace, and mercy that are in Christ, and 
ye shall then cry down the whole world and all the 
glory of it even when it is come to the summer 
bloom ; and ye shall cry, " Up with Christ !" " Up 
with Christ's Father!" "Up with eternity of 
glory!" 
12 



134 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Fair Words for ChuJings. 

I know it is my faithless jealousy in this my 
dark night to take a friend for a foe, yet hath not 
my Lord made any plea with me. I chide with 
him, but he giveth me fair words. 

Incomparable Lover. 

I avouch, before God, man, and angel, that I 
have not seen nor can imagine a lover to be com- 
parable to lovely Jesus. I would not exchange or 
barter him with ten heavens. 

Tills and Tliat. 

Oh, happy soul for evermore who can rightly 
compare this life with that long-tasting life to come, 
and can balance the weighty glory of the one with 
the light golden vanity of the other ! 

Harmony in Heaven. 

There shall be no complaints on either side in 
heaven. There shall be none there but he and we, 
the Bridegroom and the bride ; devils, temptations, 
trials, desertions, losses, sad hearts, pain and death, 
shall all be put out of the play, and the devil must 
give up his office of tempting. 

Suffering Sweet, if CJirist be Glorified. 

It is my aim and hearty desire that my furnace, 
which is of the Lord's kindling, may sparkle fire 
upon standers by, to the warming of their hearts 
with God's love. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 135 

A. Golden Mod. 

Oh, what am I, such a lump, a rotten mass of 
sin, to be counted a bairn worthy to be nurtured, 
and stricken with the best and most honoured rod 
in my Father's house, the golden rod wherewith 
my eldest brother, the Lord heir of the inheritance 
and his faithful witnesses were stricken withal. 

A Fair Testimonial. 

The very dust that falleth from Christ's feet, 
his old ragged clothes, his knotty and black cross 
are sweeter to me than kings' golden crowns and 
their time-eaten pleasures. I should be a liar and 
a false witness if I would not give my Lord Jesus 
a fair testimonial with my whole soul. 

Mark of Grace. 

Ye complain that ye want a mark of the sound 
work of grace and love in your soul. For answer, 
consider for your satisfaction (till God send more.) 
1 John iii. 14. And as to your complaints of dead- 
ness and doubtings, Christ will, I hope, take your 
deadness and you together. 

Holy Fear. 

Holy fear is a searching of the camp, that there 
be no enemy within to betray us, and a seeing that 
all be fast and sure. For I see many leaky vessels 
sail before the wind, and professors who take their 
conversion upon trust, and they go on securely and 
see not the under-water till a storm sink them. 



136 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Strait is the Gate. 

I verily think that the world hath too soft • an 
opinion of the gate to heaven, and that many shall 
get a blind and sad beguile for heaven. For there 
is more ado than a cold frozen "Lord ! Lord !" 

The Crucified Sweeter than the Cross. 

I know that he must be sweet himself when his 
cross is so sweet. And it is the part of us all, if 
we marry himself, to marry the crosses, losses, and 
reproaches also, that follow him, for mercy fol- 
loweth Christ's cross. 

Come and take me. 

I find now under his cross that I would fain give 
more than I have to give him, if giving were in my 
power. But I rather wish him my heart than give 
him it. Except he take it and put himself in pos- 
session of it (for I hope he hath a market right to 
me since he hath ransomed me,) I see not how 
Christ can have me. 

The Sighing of the Prisoner. 

The Lord hath brought me safe to Aberdeen. 
I have gotten lodging in the hearts of all people I 
meet with. No face that hath not smiled upon me ; 
only the indwellers in this town are dry, cold, and 
general. 

It is counted no wisdom here to countenance 
a silenced minister; but the shame of Christ's cross 
shall not be my shame. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 137 

Happiness Enough. 

I would seek no more to make me happy for 
evermore but a thorough and clear sight of the 
beauty of Jesus my Lord. 

A. Poor Medium,. 

I fear that his fair glory be but soiled in coming 
through such a foul creature as I am. 

" My Sin is ever before me." 

I find my old challenges raising again, and my 
love often jealous of Christ's love, when I look 
upon my own guiltiness. 

Poor Sold Joseph. 

I find often much joy and unspeakable comfort 
in His sweet presence who sent me hither, and I 
trust this house of my pilgrimage shall be my 
palace, my garden of delights, and that Christ will 
be kind to poor sold Joseph who is separated from 
his brethren. 

Sitter in the Cup. 

I would be sometimes too hot and too joyful, if 
the heart-breaks at the remembrance of sin and 
fair, fair feast-days with King Jesus did not cool 
me and sour my sweet joys. 

Home-Sick. 

I am at present thinking of the sparrows and 
swallows that build their nests in Anwoth, blessed 
birds ! 

12 * 



138 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

The Gracious Hunter. 

I verily think that Christ hath said, " I must 
needs-force have Jean Campbell for myself, and 
he hath laid many oars in the water to fish and 
hunt homewards your heart to heaven. Let him 
have his prey." 

A^ King's Life, 

Except that I have some cloudy days, for the 
most part I have a king's life with Christ. He is 
all perfumed with the powders of the merchant. 
He hath a king's face and a king's smell. His 
chariot wherein he carrieth his poor prisoner is of 
the wood of Lebanon — it is paved with love. 

A. Blessed Conquest. 

Oh, blessed conquest to lose all things and to 
gain Christ ! I know not what ye have if ye want 
Christ. Alas ! how poor is your gain if the earth 
were all yours in free heritage, holding it of no 
man of clay if Christ be not yours ! 

The Will without the Way. 

I am not able to honour Christ myself, but I 
wish all others to make sail to Christ's house. 

Since I must have chains, he would put golden 
chains on me, watered over with many consola- 
tions. Seeing I must have sorrow (for I have 
sinned, Preserver of mankind !) he hath selected 
out for me a joyful sorrow, honest, spiritual, and 
glorious sorrow. 






MANNA-CRUMBS. 139 

07i, to resign Self for God! 

I would I had grace and strength of my Lord to 
be joyful and contentedly glad and cheerful, that 
God's glory might ride and openly triumph before 
the view of men, angels, devils, earth, heaven, hell, 
sun, moon, and all God's creatures upon my pain 
and sufferings, providing always that I felt not the 
Lord's hatred and displeasure. 

"Its Own Bitterness," 

My hidden wounds still bleeding within me are 
before the eyes of no man ; but if my sweetest 
Lord Jesus were not still bathing, washing, balm- 
ing, healing, and binding them up, they should rot 
and break out to my shame. 

Fairest Lord Jesus, 

Oh, fair sun, and fair moon, and fair stars, and 
fair flowers, and fair roses, and fair lilies, and fair 
creatures ! But oh ! ten thousand thousand times 
fairest Lord Jesus ! 

Bow Few ! 

Few are saved. Men go to heaven in ones and 
twos, and the whole world lieth in sin. 

The One Eye. 

I had one joy out of heaven next to Christ my 
Lord, and that was .to preach him to this faithless 
generation ; and they have taken that from me. 
It was to me as the poor man's one eye, and they 
have put out that eye. 



1-40 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Well Paid. 

I am richly paid for suffering for him. Oh, if 
all Scotland were as I am except my bonds. 

Crown Sim! 

I rejoice that my Lord hath any to back him. 
Thick, thick may my royal King's court be. Oh, 
that his kingdom might grow ! It were my joy to 
have his house full of guests. 

T7ic Half not told. 

I never write to any of him so much as I have 
felt. Oh, if I could write a book of Christ and of 
his love ! 

Hungering. 

I know a poor soul that would lay all oars in the 
water for a banquet or feast of Christ's love. I 
cannot think but that it must be up-taking and 
sweet to see the white and red of Christ's fair face. 

t( Neitlier count I my Life dear." 

If the Lord should ask of me my blood and life 
for his cause, I would gladly in his strength pay 
due debt to Christ's honour and glory in that kind. 

TJie Braveries of Christ's Love. 

Oh, let my part of heaven go for it, so being he 
would take my tongue to be his instrument, to set 
out Christ in his whole braveries of love, virtue, 
grace, sweetness, and matchless glory to the eyes 
and hearts of Jews and Gentiles ! 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 141 

Draw the Curtain, 

We but stand beside Christ ; we go not in to 
him to take our fill of him. But if he would do 
two things : 1. Draw the curtain and make bare 
his holy face ; and then, 2. Clear our dim and 
bleared eyes to see his beauty and glory he should 
find many lovers. , 

Wait. 

Wait on God for a seasonable salvation; ask not 
when or how long. 

Xet J~esus set his Price. 

If my Lord Jesus would come to bargaining for 
his love, I think he might make the price himself. 
I should not refuse ten thousand years in hell to 
have a wide soul enlarged and made wider, that I 
might be exceedingly, even to the running over, 
filled with his love. 

CJirist better than Joy. 

I would set heaven's joy aside, and live upon 
Christ's love alone. 

If this love were taken from me, the bottom is 
fallen out of all my happiness and joy. And 
therefore I believe that Christ will never do me 
that much harm as to bereave a poor prisoner of 
his love. 

A. Terrible Harvest. 

Alas ! what a crop will that be when the Lord 
shall put in his hook to reap this world that is ripe 
and white for judgment ! 



142 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Seek a Home. 

You have a soul that cannot die ; seek for a 
lodging for your poor soul, for that house of clay 
will fall. 

Up with Clirist! 

I cry, " Down with men, down with all the ex- 
cellency of this world, and up, up with Christ !" 
Long may that fair one, that holy one be on high ! 

Ml Safe. 

What further trials are before me I know not, 
but I know that Christ will have a saved soul of 
me, over on the other side of the water, on the 
yonder side of crosses and beyond men's wrongs. 

Less Fearful tJian it appears. 

A sight of his cross is more awsome than the 
weight of it. 

"Zook not upon me, for I am Black." 

I would fain have that which ye and others be- 
lieve I have, but ye are only witnesses to my outer 
side and to some words on paper. Oh, that he 
would give me more than paper-grace or tongue- 
grace. 

Gracious Transformations. 

I wish for no other heaven on this side of the 
last sea that I must cross than this service of 
Christ, to make my blackness beauty, my deadness 
life, my guiltiness sanctification. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 143 

Godly Sins. 

I see that the best thing I have hath as much 
dross beside it as might curse me and it both. 
And if it were for no more, we have need of a 
Saviour to pardon the very faults, and diseases, 
and weaknesses of the new man, and to take away 
(to say so) our godly sins, or the sins of our sanc- 
tification, and the dross and scum of spiritual love. 

Paper Christians. 

I know that it is our sin that would have sancti- 
fication on the sunny side of the hill, and holiness 
with nothing but summer, and crosses not at all. 
Sin hath made us as tender as if we were made of 
paper or glass. 

Tribulation worketh Patience. 

It is a blessed fever that fetcheth Christ to the 
bedside. I think Christ's " How doest thou with 
it, sick body?" is worth all my pained nights. 

Desires on Wheels. 

I would that I could be humble, and go with a 
low sail. I would that I had desires on wings and 
running on wheels, swift and active, and speedy in 
longing for Christ's honour. 

The Rock on the Shore. 

It is neither shame nor pride for a drowning 
man to swim to a rock, nor for a ship-broken soul 
to run himselftashore on Christ. 



144 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

The only Garland* 

Grace is the only garland that is worn in heaven 
on the heads of the glorified. 

Christ's Man. 

Seeing that Christ singeth my welcome home, 
and taketh me in and maketh short accounts and 
short work of reckoning betwixt me and my Judge, 
I must be Christ's man, and his tenant, and subject 
to his court. 

Christ's Work and the Sinner's. 

Sinners can do nothing but make wounds that 
Christ may heal them ; and make debts that he 
may pay them ; and make falls that he may raise 
them ; and make deaths that he may quicken them. 

Pray and Wait. 

As for your son, who is your grief, your Lord 
waited on you and me till we were ripe and brought 
us in. It is your part to pray and wait upon him. 
When he is ripe he will be spoken for. Who can 
command our Lord's wind to blow ? 

Heligion no Sleeping -couch. 

Many are carried over sea and land to a far 
country in a ship, while as they sleep much of the 
way. But men are not landed at heaven sleeping. 
The righteous are scarcely saved, and many run 
as fast as either you or I who miss the prize and 
the crown. ^ 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 145 

A Gate of His Own. 

I find my Lord Jesus coineth not in that precise 
way that I lay wait for him. He hath a gate of 
his own. Oh, how high are his ways above my 

ways ! 

Struggle On .' 

Be content to sigh and pant up the mountain 
with Christ's cross on your back. 

JViu Cross in Heaven. 

Crosses will but convoy you to heaven's gates — 
in they cannot go. 

Noonday Faith. 

Every man is a believer in daylight. 

But to keep gold perfectly yellow amidst the 
flames, and to be turned from vessel to vessel, and 
yet to cause our furnace to sound, and speak, and 
cry the praises of our Lord is another matter. 

A Hanged World. 

Since the apostle saith that the world is crucified 
to him, we may put this world to the hangman's 
doom and to the gallows ; and who will give much 
for a hanged man ? And as little should we give 
for a hanged and crucified world. 

Sad Mistake. 

Alas ! that men should think that ever they met 
with Christ, who had never a sick night through 
the terrors of God in their souls or a sore heart 
for sin. 
13 



146 • MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Longing for the Harvest. 

Oh, that the corn were ripe and this world pre- 
pared for his hook ! 

The Trial Near. 

Some few years will bring us all out in our blacks 
and whites before our Judge. Eternity is nearer 
to you than ye are aware of. To go on in a course 
of defection, when an enlightened conscience is 
stirring and looking you in the face, and crying 
within you " that ye are going in an evil way," is 
a step to the sin against the Holy Ghost. 

Calm after Storm. 

I dare pawn my soul and life for it, that if 
ye take this storm with borne-down Christ, your 
sky shall quickly clear, and your fair morning 
dawn. 

A Sweet Fellowship. 

His glory is his end ; oh, that I could join with 
him to make it my end ! I would think that fel- 
lowship with him sweet and glorious. 

Fair Wind. 

Out of whatever quarter the wind blow, it will 
blow us on our Lord. 

A Safe Venture. 

Venture upon Christ's " Come !" and I dare 
swear ye will say (as it is in Ps. xvi. 7.), " I bless 
the Lord who gave me counsel." 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 147 

Itoyal TAfe. 

Since I find furniture, armour, and strength from 
the consecrated Captain, the Prince of our salva- 
tion, who was perfected through suffering, I esteem 
suffering for Christ a king's life. 

Perfect Trust. 

Subscribe a blank submission and put it into 
Christ's hands. 

Idfe Insurance. 

No wind can blow our sails overboard ; because 
Christ's skill and honour of his wisdom are em- 
pawned and laid down at the stake for the sea- 
passengers, that he shall put them safe off his hand 
on the shore. 

Tlie Marksman. 

Ye are an arrow of his own making ; let him 
shoot you against a wall of brass, your point shall 
keep whole. 

The Devil's Service. 

Paul had need of the devil's service to buffet 
him, and much more we. 

Esteemed Vanities. 

Bits of lordships are little to him who hath many 
crowns on his head, and the kingdoms of the world 
in the hollow of his hand. Court, honour, glory, 
riches, stability of houses, favour of princes, are 
all on his fingers' ends. Oh, what glory were it 
to lend your honour to Christ, and to his Jerusa- 
lem ! 



148 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Desolation tvithout Christ. 

When Christ and his gospel are out of Scotland, 
dream not that your houses shall thrive, and that 
it will go well with the nobles of the land. As 
the Lord liveth, the streams of your waters shall 
become pitch, and the dust of your land brimstone, 
and your land shall become burning pitch, and the 
owl and the raven shall dwell in your houses ! 

Better OS it is. 

How should we have complained if the Lord had 
turned the same providence that we now stomach 
at upside down, and had ordered matters thus, that 
first, the saints should have enjoyed heaven, glory, 
and ease, and then Methusaleh's days of sorrow 
and daily miseries. 

Xiarge Saviour-mercy. 

Grace, grace, free grace, the merits of Christ 
for nothing, white, and fair, and large Saviour- 
mercy, (which is another sort of thing than crea- 
ture-mercy, or love-mercy, yea, a thousand degrees 
above angel-mercy,) have been, and must be, the 
Rock that we drowned souls must swim to. 

A. Young Neiv Jerusalem. 

I think it is possible on earth to build a young 
New Jerusalem, a little new heaven of this sur- 
passing love. God, either send me more of this 
love, or take me quickly over the water where I 
may be filled with his love. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 149 

Aim at Christ With your Xovr. 

It is easy to master an arrow and set it right 
ere the string be drawn, but when once it is shot 
and in the air, and the flight begun, then ye have 
no more power at all to command it. 

Summer Hereafter. 

It is but folly to measure the gospel by summer 
and winter weather. The summer sun of saints 
shineth not on them in this life. 

A Happy Absence. 

Oh, if I could creep but one foot or half a foot 
nearer in to Jesus, in such a dismal night as that 
in which he is away, I should think it an happy 
absence. 

Value of Clouds. 

I know that as the night and shadows are good 
for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than 
a continual sun, so is Christ's absence of special 
use ; and that it hath some nourishing virtue in it, 
and giveth sap to humility, and putteth an edge 
on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field to faith to 
put forth itself and to exercise its fingers in grip- 
ping it seeth not what. 

Near Neiglibours. 

Faith is ever neighbour to a contrite spirit, and 
it is impossible that faith can be where there is not 
a cast down and contrite heart in some measure for 
sin. 

13 * 



150 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Penitence, 

I am laid low when I remember what I am, and 
that my outside casteth such a lustre when I find 
so little within. 

Conscience on WJieels. 

Alas, that so many in these days are carried 
with the times, as if their conscience rolled upon 
oiled wheels, so do they go any way the wind 
bloweth them. 

A. Way of Crosses. 

Take what way we can to heaven, the way is 
hedged up with crosses. There is no way but to 
break through them. 

Faith in Darkness. 

Oh, if we could wait on for a time and believe 
in the dark the salvation of God ! 

TJie Badge. 

Suffering is the badge that Christ hath put upon 
his followers. 

Let God have his oivn. 

Take no heavier lift of your children than your 
Lord alloweth. If your Lord take any of them 
home to his house before the storm come on, take 
it well. The owner of the orchard may take down 
two or three apples of his own trees before mid- 
summer and ere they get the harvest sun. 

They are not lost to you ; they are laid up so 
well as that they are coffered in heaven where our 
Lord's best jewels lie. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 151 

A. Panting Iiord. 

Your Lord Jesus did sweat and pant ere he got 
up that mount. He was at "Father, save me!" 
with it. 

The Hardest Part. 

Sanctification and mortification of our lusts are 
the hardest part of Christianity. 

Courage ! 

Pluck up your heart ; heaven is yours, and that 
is a word few can say. 

If only He be Glorified. 

I would take all well at my Lord's hands that 
he hath done if I knew that I could do my Lord 
any service in my sufferings. 

Oh, for the Humblest Office! 

Oh, that I might but stand in Christ's outhouse, 
or hold a candle in any low vault of his house ! 

Poor Material. 

Oh, I am made of unbelief, and cannot swim but 
where my feet may touch the ground ! 

Only Good. 

As for Christ's cross, I never received evil of it 
but what was of mine own making. Eor since it 
was on the back of Christ, it hath always a sweet 
smell, and these 1600 years it keepeth the smell 
of Christ. 



152 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Distortions. 

Temptations represent Christ ever unlike him- 
self, and we in our folly listen to the tempter. 

Will Up— Wisdom Down. 

I wonder at the enemies of Christ (in whom 
malice hath run away with wisdom, and will is up 
and wisdom down) that they would essay to lift up 
the Stone laid in Zion. Surely it is not laid in 
such sinking ground as that they can raise it or 
remove it. 

Ever the Same. 

I never knew Christ to ebb or flow, wax or wane ; 
his winds turn not ; when he seemeth to change, it 
is but we who turn our wrong side to him. 

On Good Terms. 

I am still in good terms with Christ ; however 
my Lord's wind blow, I have the advantage of the 
cabin and sunny side of Christ. 

Up Hill. 

I find it hard to fetch heaven. Oh, that we 
would take pains on our lamps for the Bridegroom's 
coming ! 

Make Sure. 

Make now sure work, and see that the old house 
be casten down and razed from the foundation, and 
the new building of your soul be of Christ's own 
laying. For then wind nor storm shall neither 
loose it nor shake it asunder. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 153 

Miskenniny Christ. 

Many miskcn Christ because he hath the cross 
on his back ; but he will cause us all to laugh yet. 

He may not part with hi* Cross. 

Christ and his cross are not separable in this 
life, howbeit Christ and his cross part at heaven's 
door. For there is no house-room for crosses in 
heaven. 

•' Half Mine ."> 

I find that his sweet presence eateth out the bit- 
terness of sorrow and suffering. I think it a sweet 
thing that Christ saith of my cross — "Half mine!" 

My only Joy. 

They have put out my one poor eye, my only 
joy, to preach Christ, and to go errands betwixt- 
him and his bride. 

Christ at the Marriage. 

I have heard of your daughter's marriage. I 
pray the Lord Jesus to subscribe the contract, and 
to be at the banquet as he was at the marriage of 
Cana of Galilee. Let her give Christ the love of 
her virginity and espousals, and choose him first 
as her husband, and that match shall biess the other. 

Quit of Superfluities. 

It is a great business to make quit of superflui- 
ties, and of those things which Christ cannot dwell 
with. 



154 MANNA-CRUMBS. 



His works have no shorter date than to stand 
for evermore. 

Wo is me — a Man of Unclean Idps ! 

I have been somewhat nearer the Bridegroom. 
But when I draw nigh and see my vileness, for 
shame I would be out of his presence again. Oh, 
what am I, so loathsome a burden of sin, to stand 
beside such a holy and beautiful Lord ! 

A. Velvet Cross. 

I know that no man hath a velvet cross, but the 
cross is made of that which God will have it. 

Sere and Tliere, 

When we are over the water, Christ shall cry 
down crosses and up heaven for evermore. 

There and Here, 

I marvel not that winter is without heaven, for 
there is no winter within it ; all the saints, there- 
fore, have their own winter before their eternal 
summer. Oh, for the long day, and the high sun, 
and the fair garden, and the King's great city up 
above these visible heavens ! 
• 

Sis Will. 

What God layeth on me let me suffer ; for some 
have one cross, some seven, some ten, some half a 
cross, yet all the saints have whole and full joy, 
and seven crosses have seven joys. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 155 

JVo Neiv Thing. 

Ere ye were born, crosses in number, measure, 
and weight were written for you, and your Lord 
will lead you through them. 

Pride's Madness. 

"If he will not be friends, let him go," saith 
Pride. Beware of this thief when Christ offereth 
himself. 

A. Great Crime. 

Ye wrong Christ by doubting and misbelief; for 
this is to nickname Christ and term him a liar ; 
which being spoken to our prince would be hanging 
or beheading. But Christ hangeth not always for 
treason. 

Never Mind How. 

I grant that many are blinded in rejoicing in a 
good cheap conversion that never cost them a sick 
night. Christ's physic wrought in a day-dream 
upon them. But for that I would say, if other 
marks be found that Christ is indeed come in, 
never make plea with him, because he will not an- 
swer, " Lord Jesus, how comest thou in ?' ' Whether 
in at door or window, make him welcome ; he is 
come in. 

Jfot merely for His Gifts. 

A son loveth his mother because she is his mother, 
howbeit she be poor, and he loveth her for an apple 
also. I hope ye will not say that benefits are the 
only reason and bottom of your love. It seemeth 
there is a better foundation for it. 



156 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

CJtrist Works as he will. 

Christ beginneth young with many, and stealeth 
into their hearts ere they wit of themselves, and 
becometh homely with them with little din and 
noise. 

Upward ! 

Up, up after your lover that ye may be together ! 

A. Sweet Law. 

It is a sweet law of the New Covenant, and a 
privilege of the new burgh, that citizens pay ac- 
cording to their means. For the New Covenant 
saith not so much obedience by ounce-weights, and 
no less under pain of damnation : Christ taketh 
as poor men give. 

The Kiss and the Cross. 

lovely, lovely Jesus, how sweet must thy kisses 
be when thy cross smelleth so sweetly ! 

Meat in Hunger. 

Hunger on, for there is meat in hunger for Christ. 

Public and Private. 

Ye question when ye win to more fervency some- 
times with your neighbour in prayer than when 
you are alone whether hypocrisy be in it or not. 
I answer, if this be always, no question there is a 
spice of hypocrisy in it, which should be taken 
heed to. But possibly desertion may be in pri- 
vate and presence in public, and then the case is 
clear. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 157 

Desertion. 

Sometimes Christ hath an errand elsewhere for 
mere trial, and then, though ye give him king's 
cheer, he will away. 

What could be better? 

Let God make of you what he will, he will end 
all with consolation, and will make glory out of 
your sufferings ; and would you wish better work ? 

God's Workmen. 

Losses, disappointments, ill-tongues, loss of 
friends, houses, or country, are God's workmen, 
set on work to work out good to you out of every 
thing that befalleth you. 

A Smitten Faith. 

My closed mouth, my dumb Sabbaths, the mem- 
ory of my communion with Christ in many fair, 
fair days in Anwoth, hath almost broken my faith 
in two halves. 

The Tree and the Apples. 

I fear that I adore his comforts more than him- 
self, and that I love the apples of life more than 
the Tree of Life. 

The Chariot and the Cold Bed. 

We would all be glad to divide the spoil with 
Christ, and to ride in triumph with him ; but oh, 
how few will take a cold bed of straw in the camp 
with him ! 
14 



158 MAXXA-CRUMBS. 

Cross-Fruit. 

I know no tree that heareth sweeter fruit than 
Christ's cross. 

Only let me not Injure Mim! 

If my Lord get no wrong of me, verily I desire 
grace not to cure what become of me. 

My Damp in the Darkness. 

In my sad days he has become the flower of my 

joys. 

Be hot Dismayed. 

If your Lord call you to suffering, be not dis- 
mayed. There shall be a new allowance of the 
king for you when you come to it. One of the 
softest pillows Christ hath is laid under his wit- 
nesses' head, though often they must set down 
their bare feet among thorns. 

Christ the Gainer. 

My trials are heavy because of my sad Sabbaths, 
but I know that they are less than my high provo- 
cations. I seek no more than that Christ may be the 
gainer and I the loser, that he may be raised and 
heightened, and I cried down, and my worth be 
made dust before his glory. 

A. Bright Prospect. 

How will ye rejoice in that day to have Christ, 
angels, heaven, and your own conscience to smile 
upon you. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 159 

Self and, Heaven. 

Ye are as near heaven as far from yourself. 

Well in Christ. 

If any ask how I do, I answer, None can be but 
well who are in Christ, and if it were not so, my 
sufferings had melted me' away in ashes and smoke. 

A. Smoky Mouse. 

It is a good country which we are going to, and 
there is ill lodging in this smoky house of the world 
in which we are yet living. Oh, that we should 
love smoke so well, and clay that holdeth our feet 
fast! 

Moll your Cares on tlie great Burden-Bearer. 

Let Christ know how heavy and how many a 
stone-weight you and your cares, burdens, crosses, 
and sins are. Let him bear all. 



I owe to this stormy world, whose kindness and 
heart to me have been made of iron, not a look ; 
I owe it no love, no hope : and therefore, oh, if 
my love were dead to it and my soul dead to it ! 

Too late. 

I am sure that many kings, princes, and nobles, 
in the day of Christ's second coming, would be glad 
to run errands for Christ, even barefooted, through 
fire and water ; but in that day he will have none 
of their service. 



160 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

A. Painted Providence. 

I painted a providence of my own, and wrote 
ease for myself, and a peaceable ministry, and the 
sun shining on me, till I should be in at heaven's 
gates. Such green and raw thoughts had I of 
God! 

The lop and Hoot of my Joys. 

Seeing I am not this world's debtor, I desire 
that I may be stripped of all confidence in anything 
but my Lord ; that he may be the morning and 
evening tide ; the top and root of my joys, and 
the heart, and flower and yolk of all my delights. 
Oh, let me never lodge any creature in my heart 
and confidence ! Let the house be for him. 

Ease in Zion. 

Verily for myself, I am so well pleased with 
Christ, and his noble and honest born cross, this 
cross that is come of Christ's house, and is of kin 
to himself, that I Avould weep if it should come to 
exchanging and bartering of lots and conditions 
with those that are at " ease in Zion." 

Mercy tvithout Brim or Bottom. 

I know that thou thyself art mercy without brim 
or bottom. I know that thou art a God bank-full 
of mercy and love. But oh, alas, little of it Com- 
eth my way. I die to look afar off to that love, 
because I can get but little of it. But Hope saith, 
" This providence shall ere long look more favoura- 
bly upon poor bodies, and on me^also." 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 161 

Hungered of Hunger. 

I think myself also hungered of hunger. The 
rich Lord Jesus satisfy a famished man ! 

Glorious Terms. 

I cannot but write to your ladyship of the sweet 
and glorious terms I am in with the most joyful 
King that ever was under this well-thriving and 
prosperous cross. 

The Safest Course. 

Certainly the sweetest, safest course is for this 
short time of the afternoon of this old and declin- 
ing world to stand for Jesus. 

Gone wJiile I Sleep. 

Sometimes, while I have Christ in my arms, I 
fall asleep in the sweetness of his presence, and 
he, in my sleep, stealeth away out of my arms, and 
when I wake I miss him. 

Sing of All. 

Christ is king of crosses, and king of devils, and 
king over hell, and king over malice. When he 
was in his grave, he came out and brought the keys 
with him. He is Lord Jailor. Nay, what say I ? 
He is Captain of the Castle, and has the keys of 
Hell and of Death. 

Happiness Enough. 

God send me no more happiness in heaven or 
out of heaven than Christ. 
14 * 



162 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

An Art Hard to Z,eam. 

Oh, what art is it to learn to endure hardness, 
and to learn to go barefooted, either through the 
devil's fiery coals or his frozen waters ! 

Sell all for Christ. 

I can say more of Christ now by experience, 
(though he be infinitely above all that can be said 
of hhn) than when I saw you. I am drowned over 
head and ears in his love. Sell, sell, sell all things 
for Christ ! 

Unceasing Prayer. 

I never eat but I pray for you all. Pray for 
me. Ye and I shall see one another up in our 
Father's house. 

Winds Favouring, tliouyh Cold. 

Devils and men and crosses are our debtors, 
death and all storms are our debtors, to blow our 
poor tossed bark over the water freight-free, and 
to set the travellers on their own known ground. 

JLose no Time. 

I know that ye see your thread wearing short, 
and that there are not many inches to the thread's 
end. And therefore lose not time. 

The Keys with CJirist. 

How sad a prisoner should I be if I" knew not 
that my Lord Jesus had the keys of my prison him- 
self, and that his death and blood have brought a 
prison to our crosses as well as to ourselves. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 163 

A. Mistalce Corrected. 

I imagined that a sufferer for Christ kept the 
keys of Christ's treasure, and might take out his 
heartful of comfort whenever he pleased. But I 
see a sufferer and a witness shall be holden at the 
door, as well as another poor sinner, and glad to 
eat with the bairns, and to take the by-board. 

An ill Second. 

This is that which presseth me down and paineth 
me, Jesus Christ in his saints, sitteth neighbour 
with an ill second, corruption, deadness, coldness, 
pride, lust, worldliness, self-love, security, false- 
hood, and a world more the like which I find in 
me, that are daily doing violence to the New Man. 

Clirist in Court with the Prisoner. 

I have been before a court set up within me of 
terrors and challenges. But my sweet Lord Jesus 
hath taken the mask off his face, and said, " Kiss 
thy fill." 

BanJe-Full. 

I am bank and brim-full. A great, high spring- 
tide of the consolations of Christ hath overflowed 
me. 

Ijove for the Flock. 

Pray for my poor flock. I would take a penance 
on my soul for their salvation. There I wrestled 
with the angel and prevailed. Woods, trees, 
meadows, and hills are my witnesses that I drew 
on a fair meeting betwixt Christ and Anwoth. 



164 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Good Cause- to Fight. 

"We have the sunny side of the world, and our 
paradise is far above theirs, yea, our weeping is 
above their laughing, and therefore we have good 
cause to fight it out, or the day of our laureation 
is approaching. I find my prison the sweetest 
place that ever I was in. 

A Safe Tfiread. 

Howbeit my faith hang by a small stitch and 
thread, I hope that the stitch shall not break ; and 
howbeit my Lord get no service of me but broken 
wishes, yet I trust that those services will be ac- 
cepted upon Christ's account. 

Winnowing. 

Who knoweth how needful winnowing is to us, 
and what dross must be taken away ere we enter 
into the kingdom of God ? 

A. Good Foundation- Stone. 

I find it the most sweet and heavenly life to 
take up house and dwelling at Christ's fireside, 
and set down my tent upon Christ, that Founda- 
tion-Stone, which is sure and faithful ground. 

A.ny Conditions he pleases. 

I should be content that Christ and I met, sup- 
pose he should stand on the other side of hell's 
lake, and cry to me, " Either put in your foot and 
come through, else ye shall not have me at all." 



MANNA-CRUMBS. 165 

My Pension. 

What hold I of this world ? A borrowed lodg- 
ing, and some years' house-room, and bread, and 
water, and fire, and bed, and candle, etc., are all 
a part of the pension of my King and Lord, to 
whom I owe thanks, and not to a creature. 

Impatient Patience. 

I see that there is a sort of impatient patience 
required in the want of Christ as to his manifesta- 
tions and waiting on. 

Do thy will on ns. 

Lord cut, Lord carve, Lord wound, Lord do any- 
thing that may perfect the Father's image in us 
and make us meet for glory. 

Plead for Christ. 

Plead for borne-down Christ and his weeping 



Help CJirist. 

Oh, what glory and true honour it is to lend 
Christ your hand and service, and to be amongst 
the repairers of the breaches of Zion's walls, and 
to help to build the old waste places ! 

Sure Pay, 

No man. dare say who did ever thus hazard for 
Christ, that Christ paid him not his hundredfold 
in this life duly, and in the life to come life ever- 
lasting. 



166 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

My Joy. 

I always, but now most of all in my bonds, (most 
sweet bonds for Christ my Lord,) rejoice to hear 
of your faith and love, and to hear that our King, 
our well-Beloved, our Bridegroom, without tiring, 
stayeth still to woo you as his wife, and that per- 
secutions and mocking sinners have not chased 
away the wooer from the house. 

The Best Half of Heaven. 

Sure I am that he is the far best half of heaven, 
yea, he is all of heaven, and more than all heaven. 

All for Clu-ist. 

Oh, that I could sell my laughter, joy, ease, and 
all for him, and be content with a straw bed and 
bread by weight, and water by measure, in the 
camp of our weeping Christ ! 

Take a Good Grip. 

Many take but half a grip of Christ, and the 
wind bloweth them and Christ asunder. 

All or None. 

Christ and his truth will not divide, and his 
truth hath not latitude and breadth that ye may 
take some of it and leave other some of it. 

Martyr Sin. 

Except men martyr and slay the body of sin in 
sanctified self-denial, they shall never be Christ's 
martyrs and faithful witnesses. 



MANNA-CRUMBS. ■ 167 

Empty Lumps. 

Try and make sure of your profession, that ye 
carry not empty lamps. 

TJie Crook in the Zot. 

If ye mind to walk to heaven without a cramp 
or a crook, I fear that ye must go your lone. 

A. Timeous Word. 

Your timeous word " not to delight in the cross, 
but in Him who sweeteneth it," came to me in due 
time. I find the consolations and off-fallings that 
follow the cross of Christ so sweet that I almost 
forgot myself. My desire and purpose is, when 
Christ's honey-combs drop, neither to refuse to 
receive and feed upon his comforts, nor to make 
joy — my new-found heaven. 

Unwelcome Joys. 

If joy and comforts come single and alone, with- 
out Christ himself, I think I would send them back 
again the gate they came, and not make them wel- 
come. 

I would be further m upon Christ than at his 
joys. They stand upon the outer side of Christ. 
I wish to be in as a seal upon his heart, in where 
his love and mercy lodgeth beside his heart. 

More than we Jinow. 

We are like the young heir who knoweth not 
the whole bounds of his lordship. 



168 MANNA-CRUMBS. 

Self a Sacrifice if Christ be Crowned. 

Let never dew lie on my branches, and let my 
poor flower wither at the root, so that Christ were 
enthroned and his glory advanced in all the world. 

Tlvou art Fair, my Zove. 

all flesh, dust and ashes, angels, glori- 
fied spirits, all the shields of the world, be silent 
before him; come hither and behold our Bride- 
groom ; stand still and wonder for ever at him. 

Content outside the Walls. 

1 would rest content, with a heart submissive 
and dying of love for him. And howbeit I never 
win personally in at the gates of heaven, oh, would 
to God I could send in my praises to my incom- 
parable well-Beloved, or cast my love-songs of that 
matchless Lord Jesus over the walls, that they 
might light in his lap before men and angels ! 



THE END. 



HHBHH 






